The Protagonists's Influences

"The Future of Us" by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler gives us a peek into what the "future" looks like to another person in a different time period. It is 1996 and "less than half all American high school students had ever used the Internet." Facebook has not been invented yet. Josh gives his long time friend, Emma his CD-ROM and that's where their adventure in the future begins. Throughout the book, I noticed protagonists; Josh and Emma influence each other through the course of Facebook.

Emma has just logged on to her future to find herself unhappy with her life. She feels like she has it bad compared to Josh (because he lives the “perfect life”.) She doesn’t want to live her “future life.” So she decides to change her future by giving her future husband a call, Jordan Jones Jr., making sure she doesn’t meet him in her later life. This action makes me think that Emma is kind of selfish. Emma is selfish because she wants her future to be perfect. Josh’s perfect life made Emma change her future in my opinion is a negative influence. In the book, she decides to call Jordan up to find out what college he’s in, which shows that she doesn’t want to be stuck with Jordan. This leads us up to the negative impact because Emma tries to alter her future. Josh should not be bragging about his future with his money because it will make Emma upset about her own future.

On the other hand, both protagonists do have a positive impact on one another. For example, near the end, both Emma and Josh realize that they have been too into future Facebook that they didn’t even live the now. Emma notices that whoever she ended up “marrying” in the future, she wasn’t happy with any of them. On the other hand, it seemed to Josh that he was living the life, but he didn’t really seem happy with his family. It seemed like Josh was living by the stereotype. This ends up bring Emma and Josh together realizing the answer was there the whole time. (Oh my god! How romantic! Excuse me, I’m really cheesy!) They realize that whoever else they end up with will not make them happy and they were meant to be together. ©

After reading the book, I realized that everybody has an impact on whoever they’re around. I can relate myself to my friends. Well, the other way around. Don’t fan girl this, but my friends are into One Direction and now I’m sort of liking them too. This isn’t necessary a positive or negative impact, but still I mean, look around you. There are so many influences that sometimes you forget.

In conclusion, Josh and Emma influence each other and they find their way into each other’s arms. Awww©So Cheesy

Am I Afraid of What Others Think of Me?

 "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by Emily M. Danforth is about a gay teenage girl, Cameron. She rebels against her conservative ranch town and she get sent off to a gay conversion therapy center because her family decides she needs to change her ways.I notice many personalities about Cameron; before the discovery of her being gay and after. I think even though Cameron is free-spirited, but is still aware of what others might think of her.

One way which Cameron shows she's aware is when she felts relieved when her parents died. On page 29, she says, "She doesn't know about Irene and me at all. Nobody knows...Mom and Dad don't know about us. They don't know, so we're safe-..." This shows that Cameron is aware of what her parents might think of her "experiment" with Irene because she doesn't want her parents to find out. This is sort of beyond the whole "aware of what people think of her" part. Cameron is worried that her parents are going to find out. When her grandma tells her that she has some bad news, she immediately thinks of Irene and the kissing thing. This action makes me think that Cameron only thinks of the bad things; meaning only the bad things for her. She doesn't think about what her grandma just told her- her parents just died. If I were here, I wouldn't be glad my parents are dead. I would be in grave despair that I just lost both of my parents.

After a few months after her parents' death, Cameron and her friend, Lindsey start to hang out. When they both end up in a changing stall, evidence shows up of their attraction. Cameron is sort of self conscious when she comes out of the booth. Outside the booth, a group of girls on Lindsey's team are aware of what happened. Because of their "masks of disapproval, sneering mouths and squinty eyes," she ran away from them. She tried to "run" away from her problem. She didn't like the fact that the other girls knew because she thought it was sort of easy for her to pretend like nobody else had noticed anything about her, about Lindsey and her. I feel like Cameron only wants the secret to be between her, Lindsey and God. She doesn't want anybody else involved because she thinks that everything would be better if nobody knew at all. I feel like knowing that nobody knows is a great feeling, but it is still a great burden. Like if nobody knows your secret, you feel safe, but at the same time, you feel like you are in closed quarters. No one knows at all. I believe this is how Cameron feels like because she feels better if only a few people know her secret. But I think that maybe int he back of her mind, she feels like she's going to burst if she doesn't tell.

When Cameron discovers her attraction to her friend, Coley, she doesn't feel secure telling her. On page 172-173, Coley says, "We can find you a cowboy in no time. Or two cowboys. Twelve cowboys." In responds, Cameron thinks, "Or how about a cowgirl?" This shows that Cameron wants to show Coley her true self instead of the one she is told to be, but can't because Coley might not agree with her. I think that Cameron has this gut feeling that she is able to tell Coley that she's gay, but then has her 'devil' telling her not to because she doesn't want to 'scare' her away. It shows that Cameron doesn't have a strong "gut-going feeling" because she cares of what others think of her when she tells the world she's gay. It makes me think that Cameron is insecure of herself.

In conclusion, Cameron is really a girl who wants to let the world know who she really is than who she is suppose to be. She feels scared that others will run away from her and ban her to another corner of the world. She wants everybody to know that she is not what everybody wants her to be, she wants to be herself. I feel like that is a big issue in the real world. People should be allowed to be who they are than who they are "suppose to be."

GIRAFFE CAN'T DANCE?

Pictures book are quite entertaining to read for children while messages are hidden within the lines. I've read "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae. There were many messages while one stood out: Don't doubt yourself because others belittle you. Trust yourself.  I got this from when Gerald started to dance. He let himself believe that he was a bad dancer because of what others told him. He didn't realize that he didn't have be what everybody expected him to be. He was own person, meaning that he had his own dancing. 

"Sometimes when you're different you just need a different song." This line comes up in the book when a friend offers Gerald(the giraffe) some advice. I feel like this is very true because everybody is different. Nobody is the same. Everybody has their own sparks in life; they are good at what they are best. Gerald was not good at dancing like his friends. He couldn't dance like the lions, the rhinos, or the monkeys. He felt like he had to dance like his friends, not thinking about how he could dance. When the cricket told him "Sometimes when you're different you just need a different song," Gerald loosened up. He started to dance like he had never before. This shows that Gerald realized his true self.

I also noticed the color of the pictures changed throughout the story. The bright colors I noted was when Gerald was in the middle of the jungle dance floor. The color made me think of how the spotlight was put on him and he felt so embarrassed. All the pressure was on him and there was no one else to comfort him. The dark colors where he was alone in the jungle made me think of calmness. Calmness meaning there was no teasing, bullying, or anything taunting him. He was alone and he could think. The dark color reminded me that sometimes thinking of your problems by yourself helps a lot than having everybody telling you to not do it because you're no good at it. 

Concluding my thoughts, I felt like reading a picture book like an eighth grader was more "meaning" than just reading a regular chapter book. I feel like sometimes the biggest messages can be expressed through simple words and illustrations.