Still Life with
Tornado by A.S. King (Author A.S. King)
Summary:
King,
A. S. (2017). Still life with tornado. New York: Speak. Sarah lives with her mom and dad. She has a brother, Bruce who left the house
when she was ten. She is a student who
does not want to attend school anymore.
She is an art student and in art class she was asked to draw a picture
of any fruit that she wanted. She
selected to draw a pear and was unable to draw the pear. Sarah began to question her ability as an
artist as she was unable to reason with her inability to draw the pear. Sarah started skipping school and even
changed her name unofficially to umbrella.
She become acquainted with her ten-year-old, twenty-four-year-old and
forty-year old self. In all there were
four Sarahs that could appear at the same time and the same place. Her father, her mother and her brother were
able to see the four Sarahs. Sarah
became obsessed with coming up with an original idea and tried to find that
idea while skipping school. She talked
to ten-year-old Sarah and it was then that Sarah made her recall her trip to
Mexico. In Mexico all seemed well with
the family. She remembered her parents
drinking topical drinks and her brother joining them on a trip after a semester
in college. During the trip Bruce tells
Sarah that her parents are getting a divorce.
Sarah mentions the divorce to her mother. Her mother then tells her father that Bruce
has told Sarah about the divorce.
Sarah’s parents are upset and scold Bruce for telling Sarah about the
divorce. Bruce gets upset and takes his
parents wedding bands from the room. Sarah’s
father returns to the room only to find the wedding bands missing. He believes that someone has stolen the rings
and files a police report. Bruce returns
to the room to learn about the report.
He tells his parents that he has taken the rings because they should not
be married. Their father punches Bruce
in the face and knocks out a molar.
Bruce leaves for Oregon. Sarah
has also been hiding a secret. She had
created a head piece in art class that was to be displayed in an art fare. However, someone steals the headpiece and thus
never made it to the fare. Sarah feels
that Ms. Smith, the art teacher and Vicky the “grand-prize winner” had stolen
the piece, because Sarah knew that they were having an affair. Six years after Bruce leaves, he returns to
town. He meets with Sarah and decide to
go see their mom. During the visit,
Chet, Sarah’s dad gets upset. He starts
beating up on the house. Bruce calls the
police and Chet is forced to leave the house.
This is the first time the family has felt peace without fear.
Reflection:
Sara
suppressed her feelings and was unable to remember what she and her family had
gone through during the trip to Mexico.
This book can read for vicarious experiences. For me personally, I am able to read
autobiographically. As I was reading the
book, I was wondering what had occurred in Mexico and whether something
personal had happened to Sarah.
Something personal did happen to Sarah, but I was thinking that maybe
she had been sexually abused. I was a
victim. I suppressed my memory. It was a sentence my sister made when I was
twenty-three that flooded my memory all at once with what had occurred. I did share my experience with my family,
although I never reported it to the authorities. So, although the book was not exactly about
sexual abuse, I was able to relate with how readers read the book. The following is A.S. King sharing five
things to know about the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8nl0f1IcBY
Moonrise by Sarah
Crossan (Quick Picks for Reluctant Young
Readers)
Summary:
Crossan,
S. (2018). Moonrise. New York: Bloomsbury. Joseph Moon is 9 years old and lives in
Arlington New York. He has an older brother Ed, his sister, Angela and
his alcoholic mother. Joseph loves his brother and sees him as his best
friend. One day Ed passed the driving license
exam and is able to drive legally. Aunt Karen is so proud of Ed. Ed somehow convinces Aunt Karen to lend him
her car. Ed takes both Angela, and Joe
(Joseph) out for drive. They come back and to their surprise, Ed takes
off in Aunt Karen’s car. Ed never
returns and somehow makes his way to Texas.
One day Ed calls home and tells Joe that he has been arrested for a
something he did not do. His mother walks in and takes the phone from Joe
and Ed explains that he has been arrested for murder. Ed was pulled over by a cop and was asked for
his license and registration. He handed
the information to the cop, but was afraid that they would contact Aunt Karen
and send him back home. He decided to flee in the car. After a while he got off the car and
abandoned the car and left it behind. He
started washing windows at a gas station for tips. The cops find him and picked him up. To his surprise, he was charged with murder. Ed had not killed the cop as he had left him
behind and alive a few hours before the arrest.
During the interrogation process Ed asks for an attorney, to which the
detectives reply that he is on his way. They asked Ed if he would make a
statement seeing as to how his attorney was on the way. Ed agrees and hours and the nights pass by
and they are still interrogating him.
They do not feed him or give him water during this time and they do not
let him sleep. He is fatigued and
requests his attorney again, to no-avail.
In his exhaustion, he agrees to having killed the cop and signs a
confession statement. As a result, he is sentenced to death row. A few months before his execution day, Joe
(Joseph) makes his way to Texas to go visit his brother. Angela has to work and his mother ran away
shortly after Ed was convicted of murder.
His Aunt Karen is upset at Ed and believes he committed the crime and
does not want to see or talk to Ed. Joe
visits Ed on a daily basis as he has been granted permission to have daily
visits. During this time, Ed has an attorney that is trying to find a way
to fight the execution order. As the
execution date draws near, Angela and Aunt Karen join Joe. They state of execution was denied and they
executed Ed.
Reflection:
Joe
loved his brother and believed in his innocence without knowing the entire
story. He was defending Joe, but somewhere had a doubt. During his visits Joe questioned his
reasoning behind his visits. I think that most people can empathize with
Ed. We live in a world where we will
certainly encounter times where we will be treated unfair. This book can
be read vicariously looking at how others deal with losing a loved one. Not just to the “justice” system, but to
death. Others have been accused of doing
things that they have not done. I think this book opens the reader to
vulnerability. Other books by the author
include Two Lives, Two Sisters, One Choice ISBN 978-0062118752; Apple and Rain
ISBN 9783641163600
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier (Author Raina Telgemeier)
Summary:
Telgemeier,
R., & Lamb, B. (2014). Sisters. New York: Graphix, an imprint
of Scholastic. Raina is young. She
desperately wants a sister. She keeps asking
her father and mother for a sister.
After a long wait, her parents Sue and Dennis announce that they are
expecting. She asks her parents if the
baby will be a sister. They inform her
that they do not know and that they will have to wait until the baby is born to
find out the gender. The baby finally
arrives and to Raina’s delight, she finds that she now has a baby sister named
Amara. Raina is very happy and envisions
her and her sister growing up to be best friends. However, Raina starts finding that having a
sister is not all fun and games. To
start with, her baby sister will have to share a room with her. At nights the baby cries and gets fussy. During the day when Amara gets hungry, she
cries. Amara gets a little older and
Raina thinks that things will be better.
Raina is an artist and she attempts to share her supplies with
Amara. Amara takes over her supplies and
Raina is a little unhappy. Amara asks
for McDonalds and her mother tells her she has to eat what she has made for
food and Amara throws a tantrum. Things
are not as Raina had envisioned, but they do have good days. One day, they each bought a gold fish and
they shared a pet iguana. Raina’s
parents have another announcement. They
are to have another baby. The family
welcomes a healthy baby boy by the name of Will. Will shares a room with the girls as the
family continues to live in a small two-bedroom apartment. Raina’s parents said that Raina is fourteen
and that she will begin a new journey in High School. Her parents decide that Raina needs privacy
and give her their bedroom. The family
unit is restructured. Her parents move
to the living room as they will be sleeping on a pull-out sofa. Amara and Will share a bedroom and Raina will
have her own bedroom. Amara is unhappy
with her parent’s decision and voices her opinion. As a consolation her parents decide to buy
Amara a snake that she has wanted. The
snake only eats live mice, which leads Sue and Amara to return the snake. On the way to the pet store, the snake
escapes and is nowhere to be found. Two
weeks later, the family embarks on a trip to attend a family reunion in
Colorado. On the way to Colorado, the
family goes sightseeing and camp out at different locations. They make their way to Colorado, where they
stay with family. Raina has a cousin
that she was excited to see. When she
gets to Colorado, she realizes that she and her cousin have nothing in
common. Amara and Raina do not enjoy the
trip, but it is time to return home. On
the way home their van breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Sue hitchhikes with Will at hand and finds a
ride to town. The girls wait for their
mother to return in the van. During the
wait, the girls see that the snake is still in the van. Raina, despite her fear of snakes captures
the snake and places the snake in a bag.
Amara makes a deal with Raina and asks her to consider Amara keeping the
snake in return for some batteries for her Walkman. Raina agrees.
Her mother returns four hours later.
A tow truck carries the van and the family to town. There they get a bite to eat and they fix the
van. They finally get back on the
road. On the way home, Raina asks her
mother about the situation between her parents.
Her mom tells the girls that they needed a summer break from each other
and that things would be okay. Raina
decides not to be on the Walkman and to spend time with Amara, which makes
Amara happy.
Reflection:
There
is such a thing as sibling rivalry. I
feel that in all sibling relationships we have differences and
similarities. It is an attribute of
expressing individuality as a person.
The similarities allow the bonding to occur. This book can be real autobiographically as
we are able to view our journey as a family through someone else’s
experience. The following is trailer of
the book https://vimeo.com/127193644.
Samurai Rising the
Epic Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamala S. Turner
Summary:
Turner,
P. S., & Hinds, G. (2018). Samurai rising: The epic life of
Minamoto Yoshitsune. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Teen. Minamoto Yoshitsune lived in the 12th
century in Japan. He was the son of a
very famous samurai belonging to the Minamoto clan. His father’s name was Yoshitomo. It begins when Yoshitomo, Yoshitsune’s father,
invades the palace to kidnap the retired emperor burning and killing everyone
in the palace. The reason he kidnaps the
retired emperor is because Yoshitsune’s father assisted the emperor with a
political dispute and he assumed that he would get compensated with a lofty
title and wealth. However, that did not
occur and he was given the title, Minister of the Stables. Yoshitsune’s father
was upset and thus kidnapped the emperor.
A rival samurai leader Taira Kiyomori received the bigger reward. Kiyomori found out about the kidnapping and
began a battle against the Minamoto samurai.
The
battle resulted in hundreds of Minamoto samurai losing their life, including
Yoshitsune’s father. Kiyomori was
unsatisfied as he continued in the hunt for all of the Minamoto clan so that
they could finish the job. However, when
they got to Yoshitsune and his mother and brothers, Kiyomori spared their life
as he found Yoshitsune’s mother beautiful. Yoshitsune’s two older brothers were sent to
the monastery to become monks and when Yoshitsune was old enough, he too was
sent to the monastery. There were rumors
all over the land and they made their way to the monastery. The rumors were about the Minamoto being
elite samurai warriors. There were also
rumors about Yoshitsune’s father being murdered so Yoshitsune vowed to take
revenge. Yoshitsune was unaware of the
samurai way, but he found a way to teach himself. In the woods, he would grab sticks and would
use them for sword practice. On his
fifteenth birthday he was supposed to become a monk and he ran away to hide in
the north. He selected to go north, because
people there did not sympathize with Kiyomori.
He was by accepted the Hiraizumi clan and trained to become a
samurai. He learned archery and sword
fighting. When he turned twenty-one, he
took his armor and his weapons and he traveled south to try to get with his
brother, Yoritomo. Yoritomo immediately
made Yoshitsune a commander even though he had no experience at war. Together they went to look for Kiyomori to
get their revenge. However, when they
got to their destination, they found the Kiyomori was dead. They continued with their revenge and
attacked the Taira clan. After a long
war they finally defeated the Taira clan.
Yoshitsune became a very famous for his daring attacks, which left
Yoritomo jealous of his brother.
Yoshitsune asked his brother, Yoritomo, the commanding officer to be
compensated for his bravery, and received nothing. Yoritomo made Yoshitsune an enemy of the
state. Yoshitsune hid for many years as
he had very few allies. He killed
himself and his wife killed herself and the daughter.
Reflection:
We
live in an era where many people hire to not get their hands dirty. I feel that the book depicts a life where the
elite managed to get their subordinates to do the dirty work for them. It is a reflection of local politics, where
people gain favors for services. It also
depicts battles among the different political parties. It is a revolving cycle where the leaders
take turns leading. This book can be
read for unconscious delight in that we can enjoy reading about the life of a samurai
but it can also be read for vicarious experience just like the local
politics. The following is the trailer
to Samurai Rising the Epic Minamoto Yoshitsune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP5e35G8WlM.
Losers Bracket by
Chris Crutcher (Author Chris Crutcher)
Summary:
Crutcher,
C. (2018). Losers bracket. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, an
imprint of HarperCollins. Annie Boots is
seventeen living in Spokane Washington.
She excels in basketball and participates in any sport that is
available. Annie lives with her foster
family Jack Howard, Jane Howard and Marvin Howard. Annie’s biological mother is
Nancy, her biological father is Rance, her sister is Sheila and her nephew is
Frankie. Annie was taken from Nancy at a
young age and has been with the Howard’s for a while. Annie loves her foster family, but she also
loves her biological family. She
participates in the annual city basketball tournament, where she purposely
sabotages the first game of the tournament to gain entry into the loser’s
bracket. Going into the loser’s bracket
will ensure that she has to play more games even though she is confident that
she will win. The reason she wants to go
into the loser’s bracket is so that she might have more chance encounters with
Nancy, her biological mother. When she
sees her mother, they interact and hold conversations. Pop, Jack Howard, is against Annie seeing to talking
to her biological family and has instructed her not meet with them. Against Pop’s rules, Annie continues to find
ways to see her biological family. For
Annie, seeing her family is not only to have contact with them because of the
love that she has for them, it is also because when she sees her family, she is
aware that they are okay. Annie’s
biological family has many issues. Her
sister Sheila was also part of the foster care program, but she was not as
lucky as Annie as her foster parents where not as caring. This caused Sheila to behave like her
mother. Sheila was into drugs and
surrounded herself with others that accompanied her with her ways. Although Annie loved basketball, she joined
in other sports activity and one of those activities was swimming. One day
during a swim meet, both the Boots and the Howards were in attendance. A commotion erupted due to Nancy getting
belligerent with Annie’s friends. During
the commotion, Frankie, Sheila’s son went missing. Frankie went missing in excess of three
weeks. Sheila was distraught and ran
away from the area. Later, Marvin,
Nancy’s boyfriend admitted to Wiz, a social worker and to Annie that he had
taken Frankie. Wiz, knowing that he was
risking his career came up with a plan to re-introduce Frankie where no one
would get hurt. They carried out the
plan and reintroduced Frankie. Sheila
wanted Frankie back and the state required she got treatment for her substance
abuse. Sheila was admitted into a rehab
center where she later escaped. The
media eventually found out about some aspects of the “plan” that reintroduced
Frankie. As a result, Wiz had to
resign. Wiz was emotionally involved
with the case that he and his wife decided to be foster parents to Wiz. One-night Sheila went into Wiz’s house and
abducted her son Frankie. She took him
to the lake and drove the car into a lake.
Fortunately, Annie and her friends found out about Sheila and got to the
lake in time to pull both Frankie and Sheila from the car that was already in
the water. Fast forward a year Jane
Howard takes in Frankie Boots as a foster kid, Sheila is in jail and Annie is
attending community college.
Thanksgiving Day the Boots meet up at a convenience store to have turkey
hotdogs. Everyone attends, Nancy, Rance,
Sheila in an orange suit, as she is currently serving time, Frankie, Walter,
Yvonne, Sheila’s friend and Annie.
Reflection:
This
book can be read autobiographically. My
brother had two kids, a boy and a girl. His son came To live with him twelve days after he was born. My brother a truck driver would leave for months at a time and I became his mom by default. His daughter however, stayed with her mom. When my son was two and his daughter was four, social services took his daughter. She lived in foster care for over a year. We gained
custody of Josefa, his daughter about a year later. I became her mom by default as well. My
daughter loves her mother and always wanted her to visit. Once we purchased bus tickets for her to come visit her children, which
she never used. We purchased plane
tickets another time with the same result. Although my children love me, I recognize that my daughter loved her mother beyond measures. She broke her heart over and over again, but
was always hopeful. She graduated from
Texas A & M Kingsville December 2016.
It was also the first visit her mother made since she was four. Her mother died a year and a half later due
to substance abuse. As you can see, this
book was read autobiographically by me.
Other books by Chris Crutcher include Whale Talk ISBN: 9780061771316 and
Guys Read the Meat Grinder ISBN: 97800662243517
Rebound by Kwame
Alexander (Author Kwame Alexander)
Summary:
Alexander,
K., & Anyabwile, D. (2018). Rebound. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt. Charlie is twelve years old
and has recently lost his father. He
lives at home with mom and goes to school with his best friends Skinny, the
basketball player and C.J. the nerd. He
has known C.J. since they were in pre-school and he met Skinny at C.J.’s
birthday party. They have been best
friends since. Charlie’s character has
changed since his father’s death. He is
withdrawn and often sad. In school he
has lost the drive to participate. At
home he prefers to read comic books and watch videos on T.V. His mother still makes him responsible for
household chores. One day he takes a
while to get dressed and misses this bus.
He decided to stay home. This was
the first day Charlie skipped school.
One day at school during gym class he was selected to play basketball by
the coach even though he was not good.
In the middle of the game, the alarm rang and the game ended. The alarm followed by sirens and Charlie
became ill and threw up all over the floor.
That afternoon, he walks home and finds a note that lets him know there
is meatloaf in the oven. He doesn’t eat
what was left for dinner and decides to call both Skinny and C.J. Skinny was at the park playing basketball and
C.J. was out of town in one of her conferences.
Skinny later goes to Charlie’s house with his cousin Ivan to let him
know that he found out that Charlie was looking for him and to ask him to hang. Charlie goes with the boys and during their
walk Ivan spots empty bottles in front of old Lady Wilson. Ivan suggests that they should take the
bottles and sell them for ten cents apiece.
Before Charlie could decline, Ivan was already picking up the bottles
and yelling at Charlie and Skinny to run.
The boys run towards the convenience store and cash in the bottles. They buy snacks with the money and each boy
retreats home. When mom returns, she
finds snack wrappers and bags in the trash can and the dinner still in the
oven. She questions Charlie on how he
acquired the snacks. Charlie tells his
mom that he had taken the bottles from Old Lady Wilson’s house. Charlie’s mom takes Charlie to Old Lady
Wilson’s house and has him confess to what he had done. Old Lady Wilson was not upset, but asked if
he could take the dog for regular walks.
He agreed, but his mother afraid of his change in behavior decided to
send him with his grandparents over the summer.
His grandparents lived in Washington D.C. There he learned how to work and play
basketball. One day his uncle took him
to go see the Harlem Globetrotters and, on the way, out he saw his friend
Skinny in Washington D.C. Skinny invited
Charlie skating. Charlie went skating
with Skinny and noticed that Ivan was in the vicinity. That night Ivan got in a fight as he made his
way to the rink as he was being followed.
Shots were heard in the rink and Charlie, Skinny and Ivan ran out. On their way out of the rink Ivan drops his
backpack and Charlie picks it up. The
police make their way to the rink and have the boys drop to the ground. They found Charlie with a backpack that had
weed in it. He was arrested and his
grandparents were called. Charlie had a
good conversation with his grandparents and his mother. Thirty years later his twin boys have
graduated from school. Charlie passed
away and had left behind a journal with his wife C.J. to give to the boys on
graduation day. The journal is a diary
he works the summer when he was twelve that he spent with his grandparents.
Reflection:
This
book can be read for aesthetic experiences and can also be read
autobiographically. We can make
associations where many have lost a parent.
I lost my father when I was four.
My mother was widowed at the age of thirty-seven with a 6th
grade education, no driver’s license and seven children. This allows me to sympathize with
Charlie. I will admit that I sometimes
wonder how different our lives would be had my father not die so young. The following is a book tour for Rebound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U-Tke3pjjU.
Rabbit and Robot
by Andrew Smith (Author
Andrew Smith)
Summary:
Smith,
A. (2018). Rabbit & Robot. New York: Simon & Schuster Books
for Young Readers. Cager is a mess. He is an addict on a drug called Woz. Woz is a drug that is used by just about
everyone. They are especially used by
future coders so that they can learn and concentrate or by bonks after they
came back from war. Cager doesn’t go to
school nor does he work, so technically, he has no need to take Woz. However, Cager enjoys it and is an
addict. Billy Hinman is Cager’s best friend. He is worried about Cager. One day when they celebrated Cager Messer’s
birthday Billy kidnaps Cager. They offer
Woz to Cager, who just won’t say no and as a result ends up compliant and complacent. Cager is a little off so Billy takes the time
to get him into the Tennessee, a transpod that was owned by Cager’s dad. In the transpod there were about 60 v.4 cogs,
which are robots. The only humans on
board were Cager, Billy and Rowen. They
begin their journey and Meg the cog is their all in one service provider. During the flight the boys the television
program Rabbit and Robot. Cager’s father
owned the studio. The flight was a two-day
journey and through the journey they were able to see Rabbit and Robot
constantly. Although the program was ridiculous
Cager seemed to enjoy it. They finally
arrive to the Tennessee on the Tennessee.
Tennessee is so big compared to the transpod. On the Tennessee Cager and Billy went to
their rooms. There Cager begins to have
withdrawal symptoms and Billy takes care of him every step of the way. The Tennessee is loaded with cogs. There is a valet and a doctor on board to
help Cager with any and all of his needs.
Cager visits the infirmary in hops to get some Woz, but there is no Woz
in space. After Cager realizes that
there is no Woz, he realizes that he is hungry and makes his way to
dinner. The next morning, they are awakened
by Christmas Carolers or cogs singing Christmas Carols. They later find out that the transpod had
left them on the Tennessee. They have
lost all form of communication with earth and no one knows that they are
there. They did advice Cager’s parents
of their plan, to no avail. They were
trapped. The ship suddenly looses
control due to gravity and sends the Tennessee upside down. This releases the animals that are housed in
the zoo onboard the Tennessee. They come
across a tiger and a French giraffe. They
came across a visitor ship that had blue people only they were not people at
all and they were able to morph themselves into anything they wanted. They also run into two human girls who had
been hiding on the Tennessee. Meg and
Cager became close, but they eventually left leaving behind a code for Cager to
use should he want to unlock the lifeboats.
When Meg left Cager was brokenhearted. After a while Cager decides to
use the code Meg had left to go back to Meg on Earth.
Reflection: This book is fiction and can be read for
aesthetic experiences. It is a
futuristic tale of Cager and his adventures.
In the process we can see that the books have some elements of truth. For example, Woz can be easily mistaken by
Adderall as students the world over have taken to the drug to aid in learning
and concentration and sometimes our soldiers come home with PTSD. Other books
by Andrew Smith include Grasshopper Jungle ISBN: 9780525426035
Turtles All the
Way Down by John Green (Author
John Green)
Summary:
Green,
J. (2017). Turtles all the way down. NY, NY: Dutton Books. Aza Holmes is a young teenager in high
school. She lives with her mother, who
is a widow and they live in Indianapolis.
Aza attends White River High School, where her mother is a ninth-grade
math teacher. Aza has an intrusive
imagination that continuously makes it very difficult for her to function on a
daily basis. Her intrusive imagination
leads to her worrying about her health to where she has developed callouses on
her finger as she cuts her fingers with her nail to the point of bleeding. This has led to her wearing a bandage on the
finger since she was a child. One day
during lunch Daisy Ramirez, Aza’s best friend asks her if she knows Davis
Picket. Aza told Daisy that she
did. Then Daisy told Aza that she had
heard in the news that Davis’ father Davis Sr was missing. They reported that there was a $100,000
reward for information leading to his whereabouts. Daisy suggested to Aza that they visit Davis Jr.
at his home. She was intrigued and
looking for information on Davis Sr. At
the same time Aza remembered Davis Jr. installing cameras outside their home,
which she thought was interesting because the news had reported that there was
no evidence or leads regarding Davis Sr.’s disappearance because there were no surveillance
cameras on the Picket’s premises. They
agree to go to Davis’ house, but decide that it would better to go through the
river to be less conspicuous. Aza and
Davis’ house are on the same street and the White River goes through the back
of their back yards. So, the girls cannoned
from Aza’s house to Davis’ house. They
began to snoop and found the camera and Aza connects the camera to her phone
and begins to down load pictures. They
are startled by a security guard that they see at a distance. Daisy decides to puncture the canoe so that
they can use the canoe taking in water as an excuse for being on the premises. The security guard takes the girls to Davis
and he recognizes Aza. During the
conversation he asks the girls if they were looking for the reward and Aza
denies it. Daisy walks away from Davis
and Aza as she recognizes that they need time to reconnect. While Daisy is walking around, she bumps into
the Zoologist, the keeper of a like-lizard creature known as Tuatara, which is
more like a living fossil and gives the girls a tour of the dome where the
Tuatara lives. Davis’ father is an eccentric
millionaire and even goes as far as writing a will where estate will be left
for the Tuatara. The night comes to an
end, but Daisy is not satisfied. They go
back and this time Davis invites them into his house to see movies. After a while Davis asks Aza to walk with him
and he tells her that her that he is aware of the downloaded the pictures and
asks if she was had or if she was going to show the pictures to the
police. Aza said no. Davis goes into a shed and he gets boxes of
cereal and opens the box to find cash in the boxes. He gives Aza $100,000 and told her that his
attorney would call her in the morning to arrange the deposit so that there
would not be any questions. Aza shows Daisy the money and she freaks out. After a while Aza started dating Davis. One of those nights as they were making out
Aza begin to think of the microbes and the illnesses that she might have from
kissing Davis. She was having issues
with intimacy as her intrusive imagination was always taking over. One day over an argument Aza tells Daisy of
her condition while driving a car. This
leads to a distraction and the girls get into an accident. Aza is really hurt and is taken to the
hospital. Azas’ intrusive imagination forces
Aza to continually think of the microbes that are found in hospitals and as a
result has a breakdown. The psychiatrist
changes the meds and Aza goes back to school.
At the end they find the body of Davis’ father and Aza was able to live
with her condition.
Reflection:
This
book can be read vicariously. It allows
the reader to develop empathy with those who struggle with mental issues. Everybody has some sort of mental issue. However, often the driver of the mind is able
to apply the brakes to control the action.
However, there are some that cannot control their minds and it is like
oxygen fueling a fire creating its own wind.
I think this book is important so that we can understand how mental
issues affect people differently. The link
is for the book trailer for Turtles All the Way Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QAPm0FEQHE
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