Blog Post #3: Reading Response

   I recently finished the book Art Geeks and Prom Queens by Alyson Noel, in this book the main character,Rio, just moved with her mother to California. Throughout the book Rio changes a lot, she doesn't only change her personality but she changes the way she looks, she turns into a completely different person. In the beginning of the book Rio wasn't really interested of hanging out with the "popular" kids, she just wanted to start the new year in her new school and just be herself. Rio also made two new friends Mason, and Jas, Rio was really happy when she met them because they were just like her, they were interested in Art, and they seemed real and friendly. Everything was going fine and she was being herself until Kristi,one of the most popular girls in school, started talking to Rio.

  When Kristi and her clique became friends with Rio, Rio had to change the way she dressed herself, the way she acted around others, and she couldn't be friends with just anyone. At first Rio didn't know if it was a good idea but then she started to like being noticed and that's when she completely changed. She stopped talking to Mason, and Jas, Rio became the person that she never wanted to be. She did things that she would've never done and she said things that she would've never said before and she didn't even notice that she was doing it. Rio changed so much that she was starting to become like Kristi but worse.
 
   I don't think Rio is going to realize that she has done things that weren't right until her "friends" do something really bad to her, because Rio hasn't realized that she doesn't even have her own opinion or thoughts anymore. She can't control her life anymore because Kristi controls it for her, Rio can't talk to her real friends and she can't like anyone that's not a jock, or a college guy. If Rio ever realizes what's going on I think she'll break down and she won't know what to do or who to be anymore because she was always an independent person but know she doesn't even know what's going on in her own life. I liked how Rio was before because now I just think Rio is like Kristi's clone and that's not a good thing.

   In conclusion Art Geeks and Prom Queens is a really good book that can show people that they don't have to change who they are just to impress someone because if you like who you are then it doesn't really matter what everyone else thinks. Also it's not worth all the work changing the way you look, and act just for one person. I really liked this book and it got me thinking a lot about why anyone would agree to become part of something that they know they're not even if it got you noticed.

Favorite Reading Responses

  One of my favorite reading responses was by Helen Rodriguez. While I was reading Helen Rodriguez's reading response about the book Pretty Little Liars, I noticed that Helen used many details so that the reader can understand the book better. I also noticed that she explained the conflict but not the resolution so that the reader would want to know more and the reader would then want to read the book. What I also liked about her reading response is that she explained the book in  three paragraphs, basically the first paragraph is the conflict, the second paragraph explains a little bit more about the book in general and how the conflict is affecting the character's lives, and the third paragraph is kind of just about what Helen thinks that the characters might be able to do to solve the conflict. Another thing that I liked was that she explained how the characters felt about the conflict, and talked about how the conflict kind of brought the main characters together.
  My second favorite reading response is by Sandra Pacheco. Sandra wrote about the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, I liked that in the first and second paragraph she talked about the book in general, then she explained the conflict on the third paragraph, and in the last paragraph she wrote about the resolution without going in to a lot of details. I also liked that in the first two paragraphs she mostly wrote about Jolly and in the last two paragraphs she wrote about La Vaughn.

Before We Were Free

  The book Before We Were Free is a story told by 12 year old Anita de la Torre. Anita lived in Dominican Republic in the 1960s, during a time of dictatorship. At first, she didn't know what was going on until Anita's best friend, who is also Anita's cousin, Carla left with her family to the United States, and her Tio Toni was missing. She always thought that Dominican Republic was a safe place, and that it was the best country in the world. Until her parents told her about the dictator, Trujillo. After Anita find out about the dictatorship everything starts to get more complicated, her dad starts having secret meetings, everyone starts talking in whispers, the secret police randomly starts searching Anita's house, and a family from New York moves into Anita's compound. Then when everything starts to get back to normal, Anita's older sister has to move to the United States. I think that even though this all might be too much for Anita to handle she will be able to get through this because she has promised herself that she will always be strong and she will never cry.
    Afterwards Anita realizes that her father is having meetings to get rid of Trujillo, then Anita's father is taken away from her, and Anita and her mother have to live in a closet. This is one of the hardest things that Anita had to deal with since Carla left but even though Anita was very scared of what could be happening to her father she was always hopeful and very brave. An even harder part for Anita was when she had to move to the United States without even knowing where or how her father was, Anita and her family couldn't help but be sad everyday Wondering how Anita's father was. But I think that Anita will be able to get through this part because she has made it so far, and she was always very careful with what she said around certain people, and she was always strong no matter what was going on so Anita will be able to get over this at some point and just move on.