Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe turns into a true love story. At first it's hard to tell, but the reader begins to pick up the story of two boys exploring their identity. This story emphases the right for everyone to be who they truly are, whether that means coming out to family, friends, or even the community. Ari has a family with a father who is a Vietnam veteran and a brother who is in prison, but even though, his family is still supportive for who he is. Ari and Dante discover who they are for themselves and for each other. This book would be a good story for anyone facing the same problems. Someone who is searching for who they really are may pull inspiration from this book. 
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe-benjamin-alire-s-enz/1100479305
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AristotleAndDanteDiscoverTheSecretsOfTheUniverse
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/20/172495550/discovering-sexuality-through-teen-lit

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian Book Trailer
https://youtu.be/Aub_K072Hr8

The second half of I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister seems absolutely ethically immoral. In the U.S. there is freedom of religion, we have the right to express ourselves as we please, especially if it is included into the religion someone practices. While I'm not sure what the laws were in France for expressing of religion, Sophane gets expelled from school for wearing a jihab. This is completely discrimination based off of how someone looks. Even though Sophane is allowed back in school, she decided not to go, but who would blame her? 

Djelila has a successful basketball game and decided to go and celebrate after with her friends. Djelila is more of a partier so it's no surprise that she comes back home drunk to Sophane waiting for her. While she is drunk, she goes up to one of the neighborhood gang members, Majid, who slapped Djelila in the face, and slaps him across the face because of what he did to her. This event is what leads to the murder of Djelila done by Majid. The rest of the book talks about Sophane dealing with her sister's death where it finishes off at her sisters memorial, where Sophane wears a jihab.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18811323-i-love-i-hate-i-miss-my-sister

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam

I love I Hate I Miss My Sister comes out to be a relatively sad story. The story starts with a women's march for Djelila, who is one of the sisters that was murdered. Sohane the other sister, begins to think about all the events that led up to her sister being murdered. You can pick up on the sense that Djelila is a very good looking girl, a bit different from her sister. Djelila likes to go out with boys seems to care about the way she looks more than her sister, Sohane. Sohane and Djelila live in a poor Muslim neighborhood with their parents and brothers. Now being in a poor neighborhood there are some people that should not be confronted. There's a group of Muslim boys that seem to be a little sketchy and when they run into Sohane and Djelila there is a bit of conflict. This makes me think though, could these kids be the reason Djelila was murdered....

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/i-love-i-hate-i-miss-my-sister

https://www.buffalolib.org/vufind/Record/1940925/Reviews

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/amelie-sarn/i-love-i-hate-i-miss-my-sister/

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of The Universe

This book is definitely much more different then what I though it would be. Just reading the title of the book I thought the story would almost be a fictional imaginary story line in the imagination of the characters, but that's why you never judge a book by its cover. What the story is really about is two polar opposite characters named Aristotle and Dante, they both appreciate each others company and grow as they continue through different experiences. Dante is a very open person who seems to really love life while Aristotle seems sad lonely and just doesn't know whats going on in his life. They both meet at there local swimming pool and love how they both have interesting names. Their friendship grows when Dante teaches Aristotle to swim. This is a refreshing read and really makes you feel good about life.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/20/172495550/discovering-sexuality-through-teen-lit
https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/nov/13/review-aristotle-and-dante-discover-secrets-universe-benjamin-alire-saenz
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AristotleAndDanteDiscoverTheSecretsOfTheUniverse

American Born Chinese, a graphic novel that frankly was a fun switch up to read. When I was younger I used to read a couple comic books every once in a while, and occasionally a graphic novel but not one like American Born Chinese. American Born Chinese was literally like a comic book in a novel. The subject on racism is very touching, the message I got from the book is be yourself and don't try to fit into something you're not or be someone you're not. Now with this being a graphic novel in almost a comic book form it made me question, who is the intended audience for this book? The subject of racism is a touch subject for some people, but was this book made for kids in their adolescent stages as an example of who they should become or was it made for a more mature audience to broaden their perspective on the issue of racism. No matter what age the audience is, I think anyone would enjoy American Born Chinese.

http://www.shmoop.com/american-born-chinese/
http://geneyang.com/american-born-chinese
http://cbldf.org/2013/07/using-graphic-novels-in-education-american-born-chinese/

Overall Brown Girl Dreaming wasn't the most interesting book I've ever read but it was a nice change. I enjoyed the change because this is based off of a true story, not some made up fiction love or high school story we've been reading. The end of the book talks about how Jacqueline becomes a writer through experiences with her family and other organizations in her life such as the Black Panthers. There really is not a brilliant climax in the story mostly because it is a true life story about her whole life and one major climax in someones life is unlikely. It was the build up of all the experiences she faced that created the suspense and climax for the story. Jacqueline seems to be able to tie her experiences she had to the way she wrote her book. For example when her uncle got thrown in prison she would write poetry about what he was experiencing. I thought this was a creative way to connect the verse novel setting with a real life experience.
https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-civil-rights.html
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2014_ypl_woodson.html#.WKxpr7GZO9Y

The book Brown Girl Dreaming is set up differently then any other read I've had. The book is set up as poetry style, so every chaperone and page is like a bunch of poems that fit together as a story. It was claimed that it's not hard to understand but for this being the first time seeing something like this, it was a little challenging for me to put it all together. It still is a story, but it sounds like a poem and is in a poem format.
So far the book starts off with an african american girl named Jacqueline who was born in Columbus Ohio. The story goes on talking about the life she lives in Ohio and her family that lives down south. Jacqueline's parents get a divorce and her and her mother move down south to South Caroline where extensive detail continues about the hardship of the life an african american has to live during this time period. This book opens up the eyes to readers who can live in the moment of an african american in the 1960's and experience the difficulties and realities faced everyday. For me, not so many questions are thought of while reading this, I kinda just continued to move page to page in disbelief for this time period. There is one part in the book that talks about an african american man working at the printing press with many other white people working by his side, and at the end of the day, all the mens hands are so black from the ink that if you only looked at their palms you wouldn't know who's white and who's black. This just amplifies the fact that we are all human no matter what skin color we are, we all have the same bones. So why are people treated differently?
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement
http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/category/books-ive-written/middle-grade-titles/
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/304851/brown-girl-dreaming-by-jacqueline-woodson/9780147515827/

      Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass was an interesting book on the perspective of bullying. Personally I can't say I relate to it but I think it depends on the environment you grow up in. The bullying seen in YDWTKYA would be more typically seen in low income areas and run down schools, at least what I think. I went to a regular old school in a regular old suburb and never saw any bullying as extensive as what Piddy had to go through. The bullying Piddy went through was downright horrific and could be pressed with some serious charges, but what exactly could a minor get charged with? I find it interesting that the all the bullying ended with the video of the fight. I personally think there could have been some action taken prior to the fight where the bullying could be brought to a halt. All in all it was good to see Piddy return to her old school where she could really settle in as the girl she used to be.
https://www.buffalolib.org/vufind/Record/1885945/Reviews
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224953/yaqui-delgado-wants-to-kick-your-ass-by-meg-medina/9780763671648/
https://www.stopbullying.gov/kids/facts/

      While applying the youth lens to the book Eleanor and Park, you can see how both of the characters grew up to be who they are. Starting with Eleanor, she was raised in a poor and partly abusive environment. Growing up in poverty would cause Eleanor to mature faster than others. She never had all the resources others were privileged with, causing her to find solutions to her needs on her own. For some families in poverty the adolescents would have to help provide around the house or even work to contribute to the support of the family although Eleanor didn't necessarily need to work to help provide for her family. Eleanor's step father was rather abusive, causing her to isolate herself from her family. The isolation from her family translates out of her house to school and other environments. We could see that Eleanor liked to keep to herself and was very shy due to the house she was raised in.
     Park on the other hand was raised in a much different house. Parks family was very family orientated and not necessarily in poverty. Park had a family to care for him, he didn't need to mature as fast at Eleanor since she had to care for herself. An inviting home environment didn't make Park feel like he needed to keep to himself. There was no horrific punishment for actions he made, making it safe for him to communicate with his parents and others around him. Parks house was not as demanding as Eleanor's, there was never the constant stress of keeping the house and family afloat, creating a more relaxing environment. When it comes to the development of adolescents, the environment one grows up in can transform the adolescent into the person they become.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1086296X15568926
http://scholarworks.montana.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1/9322/Petrone_JLR_2015_02_A1b.pdf?sequence=1
http://www.rainbowrowell.com/eleanor-park/

      So far Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is like no other book we have read, which is enjoyable for me at least. This book is not a high school love story, but a high school social story. Piddy Sanchez (the main character) just switched school and unexpectedly receives a note on the first day saying "Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass". The school seems very divided with race and social class. Piddy is a latino, but she does not hangout with the latino group at school, which is the group Yaqui Delgado is in. I have to say the name Yaqui Delgado did not make me think latino. Anyway Piddy has fit herself into the "nerdy" group of people, where bullying seems to be a problem, and she works on finding more about Yaqui Delgado.
      The common trend between all of the books we have read is poverty. It is easy to see that poverty is a problem in the book. Piddy lives in a small worn out inner city apartment. While so far the subject of poverty hasn't been stressed it will play an important role in this book.
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224953/yaqui-delgado-wants-to-kick-your-ass-by-meg-medina/9780763671648/
https://megmedina.com/booksandreviews/yaqui-delgado-wants-to-kick-your-ass/
https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html

Jell-O is a fun food! So was Bill Cosby. At the time this advertisement was made, Bill Cosby was a great comedian and kids loved him. Jell-O is mostly eaten by young kids so why not have a man who makes kids laugh advertise for Jell-O, it sounds like a great idea, attracting a young audience with an iconic man.

Well as most people know, Bill Cosby got wrapped up into a date rape case. While this meme may be comedic it does stand out to the kids who grew up with Bill Cosby as an iconic comedian. The message portrayed is that Bill Cosby was never the man people thought he was, especially for the kids who saw this  commercial on TV. Essentially Bill Cosby was a false idol to millions of children.

      Adolescent years are different for everyone depending on the environment you were brought up in. For many middle class adolescents, they don't face many difficulties and are free to do as they please. For those in the lower class, the adolescent age requires someone to be more mature so they can help provide provide for the family, or they just don't have the income to do as the please. Vice versa the same for someone in a third world country at an adolescent age, the adolescent age for most americans would be non existent due to a teenager having kids and working at a young age, requiring them to be more mature than someone of a different status.
      The literature that we are reading tries to perceive adolescents in different ways. So far we have seen the effect of adolescents on poverty and middle class scale. The literature wants to put the reader in the shoes of the adolescent in the story and perceive the life that is lived, giving multiple views on adolescents. When multiple views are shown it is easy to see that adolescents almost has little to do with age, but environment and they stage of life where one can roam freely with little to no responsibilities.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/adolescent
https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v29n2/pdf/hamilton.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40017127?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

      Well, sad, sad, sad. Very sad ending. Although Feed wasn't my favorite book I did enjoy the ending, but I suppose the ending in most books is the best. The ending gets good when Titus and Violet get into a fight about Violet dying, at the hotel. From there on Titus just leaves their relationship to die physically and emotionally until Titus gets a message from Violets dad. Violet had become completely immobile but Titus never completely moved on and came back to visit. When titus came to visit and saw Violets condition, and got into a fight with her dad, things looked grim until he came back a few days later to end their last moments together with the story of them both.
      Elenor and Park, and Feed seem like two very different books to me. They do both have the common connection about a love story, but I feel like the love story in Eleanor and Park was the main focus. In Feed, I think that the main focus was about future technology the human race will face and what it might do to our society. While both the stories had a sad ending, I feel like Feed had to much correlation with the complications and control of the feed network (technology), and Eleanor and Park was filled with the timid love between the two characters (love). I could see how politics in Feed, and poverty in Eleanor and Park correlate with each other, they were not the main idea of the story but they both had important influences on the story line.
http://jtriley.blogspot.com/2012/12/memory-technology-and-biology-in-mt.html
http://www.shmoop.com/eleanor-and-park/suffering-theme.html
http://mt-anderson.com/blog/his-books/books-for-teens-and-adults/feed-2/

      While continue reading Feed a lot of questions came to mind. I know Violet talked about how the feed is connected to the brain and how it can kill you if it malfunctions, but it never said anything about removing the feed completely. It's clear to see that Violet is still infected with a virus so some action needs to be taken to save her life, you can tell Titus is worried for Violet. I still haven't grasped the whole idea behind the lesions yet and why Calista got all the artificial lesions, suppose it's just a fashion statement but from the reactions of others in the book I'm not sure if that's the case. When the party is going on you get a real sense that everyone is a robot, at least for me, I just thought it's bizarre that people would tune in to listen to music rather than listen out loud, for some reason that stood out to me.

      The book is still very hard for me to follow, each paged doesn't click together like Eleanor and Park. A lot of the time I will lose my spot in the dialogue and not even know who's saying what. The more you read the book the more you get used to the unnatural language in it, which was a big barrier for most people at the beginning of the book.
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/meaning-lesions-novel-feed-465934
http://mt-anderson.com/blog/his-books/books-for-teens-and-adults/feed-2/
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-consumerism-technology-related-loss-identity-334864

      Feed. I have to get the negatives out of the way first. Like it's like crazy how many times they can like say "like" in like the book,  it's like insane. Seriously though, reading the constant use of "like" gets very irritating very fast. I get that M.T. Anderson is trying to sound like the young generation (or so I think) but it just doesn't work, rather it makes the characters sound idiotic. Lesions are a big topic in the book, they almost seem like a trend. Though it may be to early in the book, I'm not sure what the point of them are or maybe everyone just has leprosy during the time setting. This book does take place in the future and since it is in the future you could understand how language would change over time. Well it seems to me that there are quite a few made up words and phrases in the book, and trying to read through them is a little difficult. At times I would find myself drifting off and having to re-read the page I just read.
      I may have said a few negatives but the story line is not to bad. I enjoy how the scenery constantly changes, allowing the reader to picture multiple different scenes in their head. The story starts off with a couple of friends going up to the moon for a good time. While they're up there the main character "Titus" meets a girl named Violet and hits it off with her. Everyone has the feed, which is basically a smartphone in peoples heads, and when Titus and Violet are on the moon their feed gets hacked. From when the two are in the hospital to when they are out, they continue to grow closer and find out that everything might not be alright with their feed.
http://www.shmoop.com/feed-book/summary.html
http://www.shmoop.com/feed-book/characters.html
http://www.shmoop.com/feed-book/lesions-symbol.html

      The ending of Eleanor & Park really picks up. I told myself before I started reading I would only read 50 pages but once I read 50 pages I found myself reading another 5 pages, then another 10, and another 15. Through out the book the whole story line got a little repetitive for me, but thats just my opinion. It depends on what the reader likes and for myself it wasn't my favorite book but the last 70 pages of the book really picks up.
      Eleanors stepfather, Richie, finds out about Park. Richie is a complete madman. He practically drives all around Omaha trying to kill Eleanor, the suspense at this part of the book keeps you reading. The only option left is for Eleanor to leave town to stay with her Uncle in Minnesota. As Park drives Eleanor to Minnesota I couldn't help but think "so this is it for them?" which it turns out it is. Life is not always a happy ending and this story makes that very apparent. The book as a whole is very true to real life, romantic loves stories like The Notebook aren't realistic, or at least rare, but the story of Eleanor and Park is something that could be seen all around us.
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/stepchildren-family-parents-abuse-0409132
http://www.shmoop.com/eleanor-and-park/richie.html
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/youth-reads/entry/40/21805

      As the story develops you can begin to see the relationship between Eleanor and Park develop. There is still a shy element to the relationship and everything still seems new, but Eleanor is now always visiting Park at his house. Eleanor has been very stubborn recently, she manages to take Parks words and change them into something negative when it is clear that Park doesn't mean to be rude or insulting in anyway. It seems that the two have really gotten into kissing a lot but Eleanor is still not comfortable about having Park at her place.
     Eleanors home life is still terrible. The abuse between her mother and Richie continues along with the disrespect for the kids. At one scene in the book, Richie fires off gun shots to scare away some neighboring kids and with no surprise Eleanor gets frightened and calls the police from a neighboring house (any reaction a normal person would have). When the police arrive Richie denies everything and tells Eleanor if she called the police again there would be trouble, considering Richie can get arrested for more that just having a gun. It's sad to think that Eleanor isn't safe anywhere, not even with the police.
https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse-statistics/
http://www.shmoop.com/eleanor-and-park/suffering-quotes-2.html
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/youth-reads/entry/40/21805

      The book eleanor & park turns out to be a young romantic love story. This story doesn't resemble the type of love you would find in a book like The Notebook, but a shy love. You get the sense that both Eleanor and Park are middle school students, where a relationship consists of seeing each other at school and occasionally hold hands, at least that was my experience. Eleanor and Park are both high school students that haven't matured in the "dating" segment yet. The story line mostly bounces back between home, the bus, and school for the two. It's easy to sense that the home life for Eleanor is not particularly one anyone would fancy. A low income, a horrific stepfather, and constant bullying pushes Eleanor to be distant from anyone around her, until she gets to know Park.
      What is amazing is that Park was just another one of those seemingly mean kids in the beginning of the story, especially to Eleanor. When Park let Eleanor sit next to him on the bus they continued to sit together for weeks to come, at first they were just strangers but eventually grew found of each other eventually leading up to Park telling Eleanor he loves her....
      Since the story mostly only bounces between home, the bus, and school, the story line can get a little repetitive. What does pull you into the story is the continuous events that evolve the feelings of Eleanor and Park for each other. Some parts of the book will end with a cliff hanger, making you itch to read more!
http://www.shmoop.com/eleanor-and-park/love-quotes.html
http://www.rainbowrowell.com/eleanor-park/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/eleanor-park-by-rainbow-rowell.html

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