Jackson Boutin                                                                                                               12/22/13
805                                                                                                                                   ELA


                     The Book "David and Goliath" is an unbelievable tale about an underdog named David and a very powerful giant named Goliath.  As the small David slays the mighty Goliath, many readers probably think this is undoable but the message the author Malcolm Gladwell is trying to get through people is that nothing is impossible.  Furthermore, Gladwell argues that the powerful and the strong are neither powerful or strong.  He also stated an underdog can provide opportunities and make something possible that has always seemed impossible or unthinkable. Throughout the book Gladwell gave many examples within basketball, cancer research, and the challenges in being diagnosed with dyslexia to demonstrate that nothing is impossible.

                   One example that Gladwell uses in his book is dyslexia and how it could be not only a disadvantage but an advantage. For instance, in the book it said " How Boies went from a dyslexic construction worker with a high school education to the top of the legal profession is a puzzle, to say the least. The law is built around reading-around cases and opinions and scholarly analyses-and Boies is someone for whom reading is a struggle."  This quote is telling you that for people like Boies, they have accomplished an impossible task.  From a high school education to becoming one of the most famous trial lawyers in the world which involves reading at a very high level, showed how even though he had a problem with reading and writing that didn't stop Boies from achieving his goals.  Boies accomplished this by memorizing every word that the teacher would say rather than take notes.  After law school, he applied the memory technique to his cases.  It says here that "he would boil down the Key points of a long supreme court opinion to a page or so." This shows that even though he couldn't read and write as good as the other students which was a disadvantage, he was forced to utilize and strengthen his memory, advantage, in order to achieve his goals.

                   Another example that Gladwell used was a basketball strategy.  The story of Vivek Ranadive and the Redwood City girls basketball team was a story that will show that what we think of as an advantage and a disadvantage is not always correct.  For instance, Vivek new that his girls team was small and not skilled.  Therefore, in order to obtain experience, he asked someone who knew basketball to help him coach.  Also, he used soccer tactics, used a full court press and as a result they won the games because often time the opposing team did not have an opportunity to score.  That's how girls team won games. By the end of the basketball season, the girls' team went to the semi finals.

                 My final example that will show how nothing is impossible is Gladwell's example with Martin Luther King, Jr during the Civil Right Movement . Dr. King was outgunned and over matched.  He was the underdog.  He was from a community that was always an underdog.  The author stated that "African Americans had spent a few hundred years learning how to cope with being outgunned and over matched.  Along the way they had learned a few things about battling giants."  This showed how even though the African Americans were outnumbered, they learned different skills and lessons to help them throughout various challenges in order to obtain justice.

               In conclusion the giant doesn't always win and just because someone is smaller or not as strong as someone else doesn't mean there at an disadvantage.  Just like all the stories that Gladwell used as examples which showed how a disadvantage can later develop to be an advantage. 




                

 

Jackson Boutin                                                                                                                     12/5/13
805                                                                                                                                    Blog post

A  Long Way Gone

 

  

             The book "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah is a jaw dropping and heartbreaking story of a child's journey through a civil war that took place in Sierra.  There are over a million child soldiers in Africa.  The author, Ishmael Beah, was a child soldier.  At the age of twelve, he left his village, and ran away from the attacking rebels.  Ishmael and his comrades walked unrecognized holding AK-47's in search for food and shelter.  While they struggled through their journey, they protected themselves.  Often in the book, I would find myself resisting the text because of all the gruesome deaths and the drugs that Ishmael had seen and experienced.  I think the author explained these parts in such a manner that showed how terrible it was to be a soldier in a war.  Furthermore, by providing these dark examples, he hoped to stop the horrors he had endured so that no other child in the world would ever have to encounter.

            

           When Ishmael arrived in New York from Sierra, he settled down, and met his future foster mother who was a writer.  Afterwards, Ishmael realized that he must tell his extraordinary but violent involvement surrounding the war so no other child would ever go down the same path he was exposed to.  He chose to author a book about his childhood and what he experienced on his journey with his brother and friends.  He wrote about how child soldiers had different parts of their limbs cut off while in combat.  He reported that the fights were bloodied and death was everywhere.  From reading the gruesome details of the conflict, Ishmael, naturally, caused some readers to resist the text.   However, this also showed why he wrote a book about his life, particularly, what he saw and wondered during the war.

 

             Another example of why the author included disturbing and upsetting details of the war were in order to scare the reader.  For instance, when Ishmael and his companions are brainwashed to believe that every rebels death is going to avenge his own families slaughter.  Also, he becomes addicted to cocaine, Marijuana, and "Brown, Brown" which gave him and his comrades the power to fight.  Eventually, he becomes what he most feared, a killing machine. 

 

           All in all "A Long Way Gone." by Ishmael Beah is a great and true story about what he had to endure in the civil war in Sierra.  I often find my self resisting the text because of the disgusting scary images Ishmael has weaved in my mind.  The Author included these disturbing things to make sure that kids won't go through the same things he had to go through.  Also to scare the reader so that they can make sure they protect their community.  After reading this book, I have realized that child soldiers are a bad. Imagine a kid as old as 7 holding a gun and killing people to survive.  There are more wars like this one in other countries in fact there are several other wars going on in the world that have child soldiers. We must stop this and make sure that no one may experience war. Let's stop all wars.

Hoop Dreams

Jackson Boutin                                                                                                   11/14/13
805                                                                                                                     Blog Post


              The book Hoop Dreams is an inspirational, heartbreaking, and a true story about two high school basketball players from inner  city Chicago. One named Arthur Agee and William Gates, who both dream of playing in the NBA. These two ball players go through obstacles that will change there life for ever.  For example issues with parental drug abuse, poverty, gang violence around the neighborhood, and teen pregnancies. While this is still going on at home characters in the book go through many obstacles at school, like injuries on the basketball court, school grades, college struggles. But throughout all these things that are going through each characters life they always keep track on what's really important. One of the struggles that went on in the book that characters had to overcome was poverty and living in poor conditions.

             Throughout the book  poverty is a real big issue for Arthur Agee.  His parents just didn't have enough money to pay his school and to take care of there kids. As a result Arthur couldn't come to school anymore until his parents paid tuition. Arthur was not in school for over two months. This shows how his parents are poor because they didn't have enough money to pay for the school and be able to pay for food  and bills. Another example to show how poverty was a problem for Arthur is that when the Agee family stopped paying the water bill, the light bill and the heat for the house every thing shut down all the lights went off and there was no water or heat in the house it was just dark and extremely cold. It was hard surviving in the dark for the Agee family.  Although there were hardships the Agee family had to go through, it didn't stop Arthur who battled hard to keep his dream alive.

              In the Agee family Arthur's father Bo does drugs and cheats and beats his wife. Bo is the only one who supplies the family with food. So when Bo left the house to get high of drugs he didn't come back for a long time and was caught and was sent to jail. Without Bo, Arthur and the rest of the family didn't really have food. and the mother couldn't keep a job to provide all the supplies that her family needed and after a while they started to live in a very poor environment. This shows how Arthur is poor and that Sheila couldn't provide her family with anything after her husband left.

         In conclusion poverty was a big issue for characters in the book, as the adults didn't have enough money to pay for the children to attend catholic school. Another example of poverty discussed in the book is how they couldn't pay their bills, therefore everything was shut off in there house. The light, water and heat went off, the Agee's lived in darkness for a long time. Another example is when Bo left the family and Sheila was not able to keep a job and bring food for her family. Because of all this, it was hard not only for Arthur but his whole family suffered as they lived in very poor conditions. But all this didn't stop Arthur for working to achieve his goal, it didn't stop Arthur from keeping track on what really is important. Arthur like many people in the book are brave and have courage for not giving up on there dream. Even in the worst moments he didn't give up of going to the NBA.

FINISHED BOOK LIST

Below are books I read over the summer

1. Grapes of Wrath
2. Long walk to water
3. Earl the pearl

Non Fiction Blog Post

In the article "Teen Fiction Plots are Darker and Starker" by William porter is about how teens can explore different themes and use it to help with issues in their lives. Throughout the article William porter provides examples and quotes to back her claim. She talks a lot about how YA books are becoming really popular and how YA books can affect a troubled teen. I agree with Porter. And I think that YA fiction is good for teenagers who are struggling with the same issues that are going on in the pages of her young adult book. These teenagers love YA books why not have them read them.

Some of the reasons why teenagers like YA books is that they want to read something more complex, want to be informed, obtain something out of reading a higher level book, and read something more realistic. For example, in the article, Jack Schmalzried said "I like books that look at the world in a realistic way, although I also read lighter books," This shows how teenagers like Jack enjoy reading books that have realistic issues and are related to the world today.

Another reason why teenagers like YA books is because it has to do with stuff going on in teenager’s everyday life. For example it says "these darker books reflect what today faster maturing students routinely see in their multimedia world," This shows how teenagers see all this stuff in there every day lives, so there use to suicide, blood, guts, porn, etc. In conclusion the article "Teen Fiction Plots are Darker and Starker" is a really good article that opposes articles like"Darkness Too Visible by Gurdon and telling them that it's ok for teenagers to be reading these books because one, they can get to read a book that has to do with world issues, it's realistic, and is complex so they can learn and get something out of reading YA fiction. Second, teenageers are used to seeing all this graphic stuff in there everyday lives. Now that we have the internet kids can just look up anythin. They are used to watching videos of war, terrorism, or just gorry things. Theses are all the reasons why It's ok for teens to read YA fiction. The author wanted to point out that YA Books are fine and won't do any thing to kids to make them do the dark things in the book. I realized that there really is no darkness, parents just say that because there are not use to reading such novels.

Jackson Boutin
805


The story "Faithful Elephants" is about three elephants who lived in a zoo during World War II.  In addition, the author of the story explains how the three elephants are sentenced to death rather than they running wild through the city.  Another theme of the story is that war affects humans as well as animals.

One reason why a war not only affect humans but animals too is that it forces people to kill them so that they won't do any harm to humans. For example it says "what would happen if bombs hit the zoo? if the cages were broken and dangerous animals escape to run wild through the city." This shows how if they ran through the city it would be dangerous and there would be chaos.  For instance, elephants would trample people and damage property.

Another reason why war not only affects humans but animals too is that war causes people and animals to be desperate. For example it says "the 3 elephants stood on their hind legs and lifted their front legs as high as they could. Then raising their trunks high in the air, they did their banzai trick. surely their friend would reward them with food and water as he used to." This shows how desperate the elephants were for food and water meanwhile the trainer did not reward them and as a result the elephants starved to death.

In conclusion the story "Faithful Elephants" is a tragic story about three elephants who were killed as a result of World War II.  Through out the story there were many examples of how war can negatively impact the human and animal populations.  The author explained that war is horrible.  As a result of reading this story, I have determined that one should not fight but have a passionate and civil debate instead of fighting when there is a difference of an opinion. 

J Man Reading Corner

Below are the book I read over the summer:

1. Grapes of Wrath
2. Long Walk to Water
3. Earl the Pearl