overcoming

Have you ever felt so passionate about something you do but are often told it's unrealistic or crazy so you begin to doubt yourself.  A Son of a Circus is a good book for people who sometimes believe that what they do in life is not important or too unrealistic and are often told that their work will not change anything. This book is for people who believe so hard in their life work and are very passionate about it and even though they doubted by many, they proceed and ignore the skepticism.

The world is full of unbelievable, crazy and unrealistic jobs with all different people filling up those jobs.Dr. Daruwalla has a very unpredictable life that causes many different reactions to him. “No one could have fathomed what a life he’d led, for it was chiefly a life lived in his mind.” This shows a personal thought of the doctor, thinking no one could ever imagine the unusual life he has lead. He feels that the life he has is one anyone could imagine in their minds. Dr.  Daruwalla sees his work life as one that someone sees as unrealistic though the doctor firmly believes in his work, he notices the doubts. The doctor really loves his work although is often faced with doubts and insecurities. What this means is that you should do what you love and don’t listen to the doubts.

The imagination of the job the doctor does can sometimes be too unreal for others. The doctor works very hard on his work with dwarf’s blood, but he is often insecure with it because of the doubts about unrealistic dreams of his. Daruwalla is often told that his work is unrealistic and basically imagination. “The more clearly one sees this world; the more one is obliged to pretend it exist.”This shows how Dr. Daruwalla's world is crazy, weird, misunderstood. I feel that he thinks people wouldn’t want to have his world exist or engage people. In the book friends, family and others showed their doubts about Daruwalla’s work and couldn’t see why he wanted to collect dwarfs blood. The doctor mentions throughout A Son of a Circus why he choses such imaginative dream because there are rare test subjects in the word who are willing to help the doctor figure out why dwarfs are born dwarfs.

Everyone faces doubts and insecurities in their life and that can help the be more passionate about what they do.The doctor get most of his skepticism about his work from his father. “ ‘You should listen to these people, Farrok,’ his father was telling him. ‘It isn’t necessary for them to be more your moral equals in order for you to learn something from them.” This shows how the doctor's father does not agree with his son’s lifework. He thinks Daruwalla should take a lesson from these people with actual motivations and realistic work instead of chasing after dreams. This again shows the criticism that the doctor faces throughout his life and how it has only made himself more passionate about his work.

A Son of a Circus is a good book for not listening to the skepticism and doubts of others and believing in what you do.

Escaping Reality

Many teenagers today feel like escaping to a newfound reality. In the book, Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, is about a girl, Aza, who has a rare lung disease that makes it hard for her to breathe and speak. Aza feels as if she is dying in her world. Aza sees a ship in the sky, believing that someone on the ship is calling her name. No one believes her, thinking it is one of her delusional fantasy. Aza runs away to the ship in the sky, a place called Magonia. Being there Aza feels like she can finally breathe, feeling free. Aza soon realizes how her fantasy is not reality. Magonia is a good book for teenagers because it is very relatable to their thoughts about this period in their life and trying to escape reality.

When teenagers are at the point in their life where they feel depressed and just want to escape. Aza feels depressed in the beginning of the book because she feels like she isn’t really living and that she doesn’t belong in our world. “I’m not depressed. I’m messed up”, this quote is very relatable to teenagers in the depressed point in their life. Maria Dahvana Headley wants to show the reader could connect to the main character. Aza hates her life and wants to escape to a new one. Ending up in the fantasy world, Aza thinks her life will get better, leads her to understanding how her living in a fantasy world doesn’t solve everything, only reality does. What this means is that avoiding your problems doesn’t fix everything.

Teenagers can sometimes feel that nothing interesting happens in their life, feeling that it's to normal or boring. When Aza is in her fantasy world, without the difficulties of her disability from life on earth, she feels nothing interesting happens in her fantasy world. “I clarify, that’s what happens in movies. In this life? I don’t know what happens from here. Nothing major to think about.” This moment shows how Aza realizes she can’t escape the reality of her life. Many teenagers can relate to Aza, wanting to live in a fantasy world, because they often want to escape. The author wanted to show a moment where the reader can see how this is true to our world. This shows how Aza misses the mystery of the real world. This means that a fantasy world can tend to all needs.

Magonia is a great book for teenagers because of how relatable it is for many of their lives and escaping reality.

Personality missing

Many teenagers today are moved from home to home and have never felt real stability in their lives. In the book, What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen is about  a girl Mclean, whose parents split up and she’s moved away with her dad. Mclean has moved around four times in the past two years. In each of her moves, Mclean has adapted a new personality. In each new place she’s been a preppy cheerleader, gothic drama girls and a student council, all-around joiner girl. The reason why Mclean keeps changing her personality  because she’s tired of being herself.  What Happened to Goodbye  is a book for teens without stability and many losses.

When anyone moves away they sometimes will leave everything behind. Mclean, who has moved around a lot, tried to leave behind her mother and her past. Her mom tries to make a relationship with Mclean, inviting her to be her new family. Mclean moves with her dad because she feels that her mom abandoned her. In her new town, with her new friends, mclean feel like she has a place there, a home. “It made me think of my mother, suddenly and I wished in that she could see me here, in a real home, just like she wanted.” When Mclean is sitting in her friend's house surrounded by all the comforting things she was used back when her mom and dad were still together, she feels how it is so easy to be here with her friends but not her mom. Mclean can’t forgive her for replacing her for her new family. What this means is that many teenagers who a parent who remarries, can feel replaced or abandoned.

 When teenagers move around a lot, they can feel like they have no stability. Mclean has no stability in her life and she keeps altering her personalities, helps her deal with the losses in her life. In her moves, altering her personality allows Mclean to be a different person. Not being Mclean has let her be someone knew because going back to her old self reminds her of what she lost and what she has left. “There, the entire world world was simple in miniature, clean and orderly, if only because there was none of us, no people there to complicate things.” While working on a model of her new town, Mclean notices how nice and simple it is, without any life going on. Nothing has happened, it is a simple place. This means that many teenagers can feel that they have no stability and often feel like their life is complicated.

When teenagers finally settle down, they can find stability in their life. When that it threatened, they can retaliate. When Mclean’s dad tells her that they are moving to Hawaii, she retaliates by running away to an old place with she would go with her mother before all of it happened. Mclean runs because she has finally found a place where she feels like she belongs. Mclean uses her own name in her new town, she’s the person who she was before her parents divorced. This shows that she felt comfortable enough to use her own name. In this new place she has friends, people she feel comfortable around. Mclean has allowed herself to have a connection to this town. This means that when teenagers have finally settled down and their newfound happy life might be taken away, they can retaliate in a way of anger and sadness.

What Happened to Goodbye  is a good book for teens who don’t have stability in their life and have many losses in their lives.

                                                            

Me as a Reader

Hi, my name is Loulou and I love to read books, but I'm usually very busy. I actually read a lot when I was little because that was all I could really do. I still love to read today. I enjoy reading mostly realistic fiction and sometimes memoirs or autobiographies. Over the summer, I reread Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I really love that book. I also read the Geography of You and Me, but I didn't really enjoy that one. I also like sci-fi books like dystopian societies. A couple weeks ago, I started reading A son of a Circus by Joh Irving. It's my parents copy and I really like reading it because this book challenges me as a reader. I do try to read different genres even though I seem to always be reading realistic fiction. 
I would consider myself a pretty good reader and I do well in ELA, much better than math. But I am not good at logging my reading just a warning. I'm trying to do better on that. Some books I wanted to read are Paper Towns and Speak because I have heard they are good books.