Although I really like to read, I'm extremely picky about books and I have a bad habit of starting books, getting bored with them and abandoning them. That's what happened when I started November Blues a few months ago. Recently I picked it up again and started over. Reading it made me wonder why I had ditched it in the first place. I felt sorry that I had and I'm glad I gave it a second chance.
Like many books I've enjoyed, November Blues is told from two different perspectives(Unit 3 vocabulary word!) One narrator is November, a pregnant teenager. The father of her child is dead and her mother has a whole future planned out for her. When November narrates, she talks about how she always felt bad for teen moms and knew how hard their lives were, but she never really knew until she became one of them. I guess that's how everything is; you never truly know what something is like until you experience it firsthand.
The other narrator is Jericho, the cousin and best friend of November's late boyfriend, Josh. He's also the ex-boyfriend of Ariel, a girl who used to be best friends with November and her best friend Dana, but left them all when she started dating someone else. Jericho feels somewhat responsible for taking care of November and her baby. He knows that Josh would want that.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Viola in Reel Life
If you had a family and friends that supported you, a hobby that you're knowledgeable and passionate about, and you lived in one of the most interesting, beautiful and diverse places in the world, why would you want anything to change? Viola Chesterton, the main character in Adriana Trigiani's novel Viola in Reel Life surely didn't. When 14-year-old Viola was forced to leave behind her family, friends, school and home to go to an all-girls boarding school in South Bend, Indiana, she wasn't at all happy about it. I can't really blame her. Like Viola, I am lucky enough to live in New York City and experience all it has to offer every day. I would never want to leave the place that Viola says is "the coolest place on the planet". Throughout the whole book, I felt that I could really identify with Viola and relate to her feelings.
Viola lived in Brooklyn her whole life, so naturally, she's grown attached. She feels like no place can compare to the city and that boarding school will be dull and depressing. ("I'm marooned. Abandoned. Left to rot in boarding school." pg. 1) To amuse herself, Viola makes a secret video diary of her life at boarding school called the Viola Reels. Viola is very passionate about the art of film and she feels like she knows that that's what she wants to do for the rest of her life. I can relate to this, because for years I've loved acting. I'm pretty sure that I want theater to always be a part of my life. I couldn't imagine living without being able to act or going to a school without a drama program. For Viola, making movies is one of the few things she has left of her old life.
Viola thinks that Indiana won't be a interesting to film as New York is, but she soon realizes that she's wrong. On her first day at boarding school, Viola is filming out in the fields. Later on when she's watching what she's filmed, she sees a mysterious lady in red standing in the field. Viola doesn't remember seeing her before and assumes that she's a ghost of some sort. This leads to doing research and learning about who this ghost woman is and even helps her open up to her roommates and realize that the world is bigger than just New York City and that interesting things can happen anywhere.
Like Viola, I have learned multiple times that even though trying something new doesn't always seem like it'll be fun, life is full of surprises and you don't have to be at the center of all the action to have an exciting experience.
Viola lived in Brooklyn her whole life, so naturally, she's grown attached. She feels like no place can compare to the city and that boarding school will be dull and depressing. ("I'm marooned. Abandoned. Left to rot in boarding school." pg. 1) To amuse herself, Viola makes a secret video diary of her life at boarding school called the Viola Reels. Viola is very passionate about the art of film and she feels like she knows that that's what she wants to do for the rest of her life. I can relate to this, because for years I've loved acting. I'm pretty sure that I want theater to always be a part of my life. I couldn't imagine living without being able to act or going to a school without a drama program. For Viola, making movies is one of the few things she has left of her old life.
Viola thinks that Indiana won't be a interesting to film as New York is, but she soon realizes that she's wrong. On her first day at boarding school, Viola is filming out in the fields. Later on when she's watching what she's filmed, she sees a mysterious lady in red standing in the field. Viola doesn't remember seeing her before and assumes that she's a ghost of some sort. This leads to doing research and learning about who this ghost woman is and even helps her open up to her roommates and realize that the world is bigger than just New York City and that interesting things can happen anywhere.
Like Viola, I have learned multiple times that even though trying something new doesn't always seem like it'll be fun, life is full of surprises and you don't have to be at the center of all the action to have an exciting experience.
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