Reading Response to Skinny by Donna Cooper

       Ever Davies weighs over three hundred pounds.  A vicious voice insider her head, named Skinny, tells her the unwhispered thoughts of her classmates.  Ever knows she is fat and probably will never be loved, but Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.  She pushes people away because she thinks they think a certain way about her because of what Skinny has told her, but they don't.  Skinny thrives on making Ever's life miserable, as if it isn't hard enough being an obese teenager in today's society without having to know everyone's unspoken comments.  She is terrified of having to answer questions in class or go up to the board.  She hates the tiny desks because she cannot fit into them so people make fun of her.  It's not like she wants to be fat.  She basically "ate her feelings" because from when her mom died.  She had a connection of eating with her, and she thought that eating a lot might bring her back somehow.  People can be very cruel.  Our society doesn't mind judging people based on unimportant things like weight.  Ever hated herself because she was large.  Though she took this hatred and put is somewhere good.  She used it as a drive to change.  She went through a risky surgery that cut her stomach into a small pouch to make herself skinnier.  She saw what she wanted to do, and did it no matter how hard it could be.
      I admire Ever Davies in lots of ways.  She pushed herself to do something extremely difficult physically and emotionally.  Even though she accepted herself others didn't.  Though I hate that she thought she had to risk her life in order to be accepted by society.  Skinny is just an example of what people's thoughts can do to a person.  How much they can dictate a person's life even if it is "just a joke."  This is a very important thing to understand.  Small comments that don't mean anything can do a lot of damage, without you even knowing it.

Reading Response #3 to The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti

       Scarlet finally took a step towards expressing her feelings for Hayden.  Though it might not been the best choice.  Scarlett got caught up in the moment, and kissed him.  He began to kiss her back and then immediately pulled away because the wrongness of what they were doing pulled him back into reality.  She was very ashamed, and wished her feelings for him were still her secret.  I think maybe not this particular action, but variations of it make this book so relatable.  We all do things that we regret as soon as we have done them.  Embarrassment helps you learn from your mistakes.  It is not the worst thing in life to have to deal with.  I think Scarlett and Hayden's friendship will be able to survive this awkward setback.  They are so much alike that they understand each other completely.  Though Hayden was definitely not expecting this.

       There is another problem that they are dealing with.  Juliet, Scarlet's sister and Hayden's wife, has been gone from the house for over three days when it was only supposed to be one night.  Scarlet knows that she is at her old ex-boyfriend's house doing very immoral things with him.  Though Scarlet and Juliet's mother refuses to accept this.  She is just letting Juliet work out her problems all on her own, though she doesn't understand that Juliet is in desperate need of some guidance before she ruins her life.  She is married to a really great guy and is pregnant.  She cannot mess all of that up, including her unborn child's life, for some disgusting ex.  It is like she doesn't even care about Hayden's feelings.  She is so moody and back and forth that no one knows what to expect with her.  Scarlet has harbored a lot of hate for her, because she can see how much Hayden loves her and she wants him to be happy so she cannot stand what Juliet is doing to him.  She has tried confronting Juliet numerous times though has found them to be ineffective on her poor decision making.  Hopefully Scarlet, her mother, and Hayden can help pull Juliet together before she gives birth so that the child will not be born into an already broken up family.  No child deserves that.

Reading Response #2 to The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti

       The main character, Scarlett, in The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti has changed a lot throughout the book.  She started off as a quiet girl who kept to herself.  She found joy in helping others and never really thought about doing things for herself.  Scarlett thought that life would go along without obstacles if you were nice to everyone and selfless.  Though she found this to not be true.  Problems occurred in life no matter if you were nice and never thought of yourself, or did things for yourself every now and then and didn't always try to make others happy.  Scarlett learned this and it helped her to accept some of her feelings.
       She unfortunately had fallen in love with her sister's husband.  She could tell that her sister wasn't treating him, Hayden, right and that he was going to get hurt.  At first she tried to ignore these feelings for him because she knew nothing was ever going to happen.  Though as these feelings grew the more she spent time with him she learned that even though nothing was going, or could ever, happen she could still accept them for what they were.  Love.  They developed a connection because he truly understood her, when most others including her mom and sister didn't.  This feeling of empathy coming from him made her feel so much better.
       Scarlett also changed because she started to do things that her friend didn't like.  She knew that her friend was madly in love with this boy, though the boy acts like he has a crush on Scarlett.  This of course makes Scarlett's friend, Nicole, feel devastated.  The boy talks to Scarlett and she talks back.  She is in love with Hayden but still wants to be friends with with this guy.  Though Nicole wrongly mistakes this for flirting and thinks that Scarlett has betrayed her.  The old Scarlett would have immediately stopped talking to this boy so Nicole doesn't feel threatened, but the new Scarlett does what she wants for once.  She likes his company and doesn't mind talking to him.  She tells herself that she can talk to whomever she wants, and she is right.
        Although Scarlett has undergone a lot of change throughout the story, she still possesses some of her same traits.  She is trying to be happy for her sister and Hayden.  She gives him tips on how to make her sister, Juliet, happy.  She also is working on a large project for her old neighbor across the street who needs some joy in his life.  Scarlett has changed, but for the best.  She is letting herself have some fun, as well as helping others just like she used to.  Everyone deserves to do stuff for themselves every now and then, but it is also important to do stuff for others and Scarlett definitely does that.

Reading Response to The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti

       This book is very interesting so far.  The main character is a girl who likes to keep to herself.  She listens a lot and just watches life.  Though she has a lot of conflict with her mother, who wants her to be more social like her older sister.  This is a tough and uncomfortable situation for a younger sibling who most likely does not want to be just like her older sister.  No one likes getting told to be more like someone else.  The main character, Scarlet, doesn't see the problem with being quiet and only having a couple of close friends.  Then Scarlet's sister, Juliet, comes home again with a big surprise.  She had gotten married without telling anyone because she was, accidentally, pregnant.  Though when she brought her new husband home, Scarlet felt a connection with him that she hadn't felt with anyone else.  She could relate to him, he understood her.  There was only one problem, he loved her sister.
       The story shows a lot of conflicts that Scarlet has to keep to herself.  She thinks of herself as one who helps others.  She thought if she was just quiet and nice and followed the rules that she could avoid problems.  Though it never occurred to her that she might have problems of her own that she needed help with.  That is so out of her personality.  Though I think that Scarlet will be able to handle her problems on her own.  She might need a little of help, but that is what her best friends are for.  Scarlet is really smart and reads a lot of psychology books.  She understands stuff that others do not.  Hopefully she will be able to move on from her first crush that will not work out.

Reading Response to The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

       The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards has a very interesting story line.  This book is very intriguing though a little difficult to relate to since the events that occur in it are so out of the ordinary.  In the story so far, the wife of a loving husband gave birth to twins.  She was expecting to give birth to her children with a doctor though when she went into labor the doctor had a car wreck trying to get to the hospital.  The husband, a orthopedic surgeon, was forced to deliver his babies.  There is a twist though.  They were only expecting one baby so when two came they were delighted.  The husband however saw that the little girl was not healthy and had a similar disease that his sister had died of.  He told his assistant to take the baby to a home for children with these problems.  He did not want to tell his wife of this decision so he told her that the girl had died and that they only had a little boy.
       As you can see, this story line is a little confusing and hard to follow.  There is not a lot to connect the reader to the book other than true curiosity.  I think the author could have done a little better job trying to give her audience something, even it is a small thing, to relate to.  A father hiding his daughter from the mother does not happen often, which is a good and bad thing for this book.  It doesn't happen often therefore it is interesting to read about, but hard to empathize with.  There is not a level of emotional attachment to the characters.  Other than the lack of relatable material this book is amazing.  I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Reading Response #2 to Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

       I really enjoyed the perspective change that Tatiana de Rosnay used in this book, Sarah's Key.  She switched back and forth between a writer in Paris during the present time period, and a little girl in Paris during the Jewish roundup in 1492.  The characters' plot mountains are very similar.  They both had climaxes at the same time which made the story extremely exciting.  This book is dealing with many important issues that are still problems today.
       In the present time character's story, she was dealing with racism and abortion.  Although she had lived in Paris for 25 years, all of her friends and French family still referred to her as the American.  Whenever she did something wrong they would say something like, "You silly American."  This made her feel very excluded and bad about herself.  She just wanted to be seen as a true Parisian because that is how she saw herself.  She wanted to fit in so bad, but no one would include her in their definition of a true French woman.  This lady was also dealing with pregnancy issues.  Her husband was very selfish and wanted a baby so badly from his wife, preferably a son.  Though she had numerous and sometimes fatal difficulties.  She finally managed to give birth to a beautiful, healthy girl.  Though he soon begged her for a second child which she failed to deliver.  This woman could just not do it no matter how badly she wanted to.  Though she finally managed to get pregnant again, but this time he decided he was too old to have a baby and would divorce her if she did not get an abortion.  I think this must have crushed her.  All she wanted to do was to make her husband happy though she failed to do so.  This insight helped her decide that she needed to make herself happy for once so she decided to have the baby.  I think the author created this character and her problems to help make the story more relatable.
       The little girl from the 1940s had less relatable, but very devastating problems.  She was Jewish, during the Jewish roundup.  Things were not looking good for her and she had no idea what was going on because her parents thought they were protecting her by keeping information from her.  She decided to lock her brother in the cupboard to keep him safe because she thought that her family would return to their home in a few hours.  She had no idea what was going on.  In the next month she lost her entire family, her trust for adults and her innocence.  The girl went through a rapid character change, just like the present day woman.  I think the author had their story lines connect to reduce confusion about what was going on.  I truly loved this book, reading it was an incredibly emotional journey and I would recommend it to anyone who likes WWII books.

Reading Response for Sarah's Key

       In Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, the main character, Sarah, goes through a lot of personality change, though she does keep some main character traits throughout the story.  In the beginning of the book, Sarah is selfless and just plain happy.  She doesn't understand what is going on around her.  Sarah lives in Paris, France during 1942, the time of the Jewish roundup.  Unfortunately, Sarah is Jewish.  Her parents have kept all the political information from her though, so when French police come pounding on their door in the middle of the night, she has no idea what is happening.  Though Sarah is very helpful and selfless.  She knew her father was hiding in the attic, but she didn't know why.  So she kind of took charge in this stressful moment.  Her mother was frozen with fear, so Sarah calmed her down.  She persuaded her to open the door and talk to the police.  The police then told them that they had to pack for a short trip.  Her four-year-old brother decided that he was going to protest this madness and not pack.  So Sarah did what she thought was best at the time.  She decided to lock him in a secret cupboard and release him as soon as they came back.  What she didn't know was that they were never coming back.

       Sarah then was transported to a massive stadium with her mother and father.  She was not her usual self, though I don't think anyone would be expected to act normal in such a terrible time.  She was very panicky and couldn't stop thinking about her brother locked in the cabinet.  She took full blame for him being trapped.  Though I do not think it is her fault.  If her parents had told her anything that was going on she would have known that they were not coming back.  I think that Sarah's parents made the mistake that keeping necessary information from her was protecting her, when really it was the opposite.

       Towards the end of the story Sarah has really gotten brave and hard.  She lost her entire family and has no idea where they are.  So she is on her own, left to fend for herself against abusive police and sick, dying children.  Though Sarah remains to have her selfless character.  She tells stories that she used to tell her brother to all of the smaller children to give them something to focus on other than the  horrifying things going on around them.  She also holds their hands when they are scared, which is a lot.  Though Sarah is so determined to escape.  She thinks that if she leaves the camp now that she will be able to save her brother.  So she and her friend, Rachel, sneak out of the camp through a little gap in the fence.  Now they are left to find there way and not get caught with only a small amount of money that one of the friendliest guards gave them.  Hopefully Sarah's many great character traits will help she and her friend survive.