Ishmael

I choose the song Take a minute by K’naan. I choose this song because it reminds me of the book A Long Way Gone and it reminds me of when Ishmael’s lost his mother and saw people being killed.

“Mother knows, my mother she suffered blows

I don't know how we survived such violent episodes”

This lyric I think is very strong because he made it through being shot at, stuff being set on fire around him, running for hours and hours. Starving, living in jungles, and he was very attached to his mom and was very worried about her, maybe his mom didn’t make it through but he did.

Child soldiers

In many countries children are used as soldiers. After we read the book A Long Way Gone I got to know a lot more about child soldiers and why countries have child soldiers. After learning about this problem I really do not like the idea of children being used as soldiers. Many of the children are being forced into becoming soldiers and some are being drugged, so they think that they want to be there, and they want to kill people. Also many of them have lost their parents, or brothers or sisters. So they are emotionally venerable. Sometimes thinking other soldiers are their family, which keeps them comfortable, and the drugs keep them going.

I am strongly against this, because they are children. Most children go out and play with their friends, go to school, spend time with family. Not go to war, be abducted, or drugged so they can participate in killing. Children should have some where safe to go, people that make them feel safe, and learn about safety. They should not see people being slaughtered, and they should not be a part of slaughtering.

Some children com out of the war and go into rehab. Some of them have been on drugs for month, years. So it’s obviously going to be hard for them to come clean. But even after becoming clean they still have the memories. Maybe some fun but they have memories of seeing people being killed, tortured, and killing people them self.

No child should go through that, no child should be forced or drugged to kill. Maybe they can fit in little places, maybe theres a lot of them. But they should be in school learning and bettering them self, not being drugged or forced into be a low life killer.

Book Review: The Unidentified

I read The Unidentified by Rae Mariz . This book is about teenagers that go to a school and it's pretty much a game, they have arcade time, they have missions, it's very different then a normal school, and it's in an old mall. For most teens it would be the best school to go to, it's a very fun school. One of the major conflicts is a group of people dropped a dummy from the 4th floor and its balloon head exploded, but no one knew who did it. It is a big mystery. But there are fliers all around the school that say, "Choose your suicide." Kid and her friends are trying to figure out who did it. Its very intense and interesting.

I didn't really like this book, I couldn't get into it. It starts off very slow. But I think it would be a good book for male or female teenagers, because it's like the dream school not having class and being able to do what you want. That's what most teens want. So this book would definitely interest a lot of people. The book is about 200 pages long, so it's not a long book. But a lot goes on in those 200 pages.

It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder

Eatin' out of garbage pails

Got a bum education

Can't stop to turn around

Stabbed that man right in his heart

I can't walk through the park, cause it's crazy after dark

Of how you lived so fast and died so young

In the book a long way gone its like a jungle for him, there are so many things going on, it’s crazy, and scary. He doesn’t have a steady food source so he has to find his own food, he sometimes doesn’t even know if it’s going to make him sick, or die. He has very little education, he went to school for a couple years. He can’t stop to turn around because it means death, he has to keep pushing on. He can’t just walk anywhere, he can’t go into certain places. He’s only going where he thinks it’s safe.

Ruf

RUF, revolutionary united front. They were a rebel army that fought in a war with Sierra Leone for 11 years, because they wanted to be in control. Plus they were fighting for there rainforest. The rainforest is very valuable, and a lot of them are being taking out for the wood. They did not win the war, but many of them were prosecuted in 2009, and many of them went to jail. A lot of them also are amputee's.

Along for the Ride

I am currently reading a book called Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen. I would recommend this book for a lot of people, mostly girls though. It's a very realistic realistic realistic. It is about this girl, her mother and father get a divorce. She is a very smart girl, she studies all the time. She doesn't hang out with her friends to much. Her father is an author, he is working on a novel, and her mother is a english teacher. Auden decides to go down to her fathers beach front house for the summer, and she experiences many different things and does thing she would have never done at her mom. She brakes out of her shell and finds someone different inside herself.

Banning Book

The absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian is banned in some schools because of swearing, and sexual topics. But if you really think about it, our freshmen are 14 or 15 and most of them know more then people think they do. Also we can't shelter our schools from swearing and sexual topics. It's now a big part of there life's now as they are growing up. Everyday they are going to hear or say a swear word and they are most likely going to hear about sex or a sexual topic or they might be talking about it them self. So banning this book isn't really doing anything because it's a part of there everyday life.