NonFiction Reading Response

                                                                                                                               

                                             "Outbreak" Reading Response
                                                 By: Taylor McGloin 812
   
      In the new upfront magazine I read an article called "Outbreak" By: Patricia Smith about the dangerous disease going around called Ebola. Ebola has infected 4,000 people in Guinea, Liberia. It is ravaging West Africa and alarming the rest of the world keeping them on edge and scared. In Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal the deadly disease has killed more than 2,300 people. The outbreak is very much out of control and just getting worse as the doctors and any kind of medical worker struggle to help prevent ebola but also treat the patients with a severe or minor case's of it. Ebola is turning towns into empty ghost like places and tearing apart families. The disease only continues to worsen.

     In this article, you can tell Patricia Smith feels terrible about ebola. You can also tell by her descriptive language that she sees how big of an effect it has made and finds it to be pretty severe. You can see this when she talks about how ebola took all the happy towns and turned them in to sad ghost towns instead. Also when she talks about the way Ebola is decimating families and ruining all the lives of people who have had their homes, cities, countries taken by storm with the deadly disease of ebola. Patricia Smith starts to ask retorical questions throughout her article like when she says "Past Ebola outbreaks have been quickly snuffed out. How, then, did this one spin so far out of control?" The attitude Patricia keeps through the whole writing piece you can tell she's worried about how far the whole disease has and will continue to go.

     During the article Patricia Smith took sad quotes from past or current Ebola patients like Jattu, Lahai, 26, who was a woman that had survived Ebola but when she returned to her village of Sierra Leone, even her family was too afraid to touch her or interact. "When I fell sick, everybody abandoned me" Patricia Smith helped the reader know about Ebola but also its heartbreaking effect on everyone. She introduced the readers to more of an emotional side to this sickness then the facts. Having to read this made me feel horrible that this is happening in other places yet we are doing nothing about it just because its near us.  Although Patricia tried to make it so she had no opinion there were definitely parts in her writing you could see her shock and her heartbreak and as she went along you (the reader) started to feel it too.
   
        This article has changed my thinking a lot. Being a 13 year old girl living in NYC you don't really take into perspective how hard this subject is. How it scars people, tears up families, kills, hurts and ruins lives its difficult. I've never really wrapped my head around it besides the fact of people are sick and its hard to take care of. A lot of people try and joke about the subject but this topic is the exact opposite of a joke. Patricia Smith showed me the hurt and damage with every word she said. I learned a lot from this and I think everyone else should too.
   

Book Club Independent Essay

   
Taylor McGloin                                                                                                                  11/6/14
812                                                                                                                                        ELA

                                               ELA Independent Book Club Essay


     Throughout Sherman Alexie's book "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian" many people have seen the things that might cause a parent to label it as inappropriate, there have been many aspects that aren't exactly content that a 13 year old should be reading. Despite Sherman Alexie's questionable writing material this has helped kids learn what and what not to do and how to handle certain situations. It has had some things that aren't the most kid friendly but has topics and problems in the world that we need to learn about one way or another. Regardless if u try to hide it these are real topics going on in the world and not just fictional book characteristics or problems. This book should not be banned in my opinion but I see why parents would not want there kids reading this or think it would be a bad influence. Although they may have the opinion for their child they do not have to set it up like that for all the other children that may be interested in learning something new.

     Many reasons why this book should be banned are because of sexual content, racism, foul language, and many more things. To start this off I'm going to talk about racism. In this book they discriminate blacks and whites and tend to make fun of native americans quite a lot. This is all 100% not okay. In the book they talk about how whites deserve more credit then blacks because they are better and more deserving not only do they say that but they use racist curses and phrases to talk to certain characters. This could make someone feel uncomfortable talking about or reading about, this could even make someone feel insecure about there own race. As for foul language there is way more then enough in this book. They use words like "faggot" as an insult when being gay is not at all a problem. They call character to character things like "asshole" or the characters might even say mean things to each other like "I don't give a shit about you." All these words are highly discourage for kids my age and could make kids feel bad hearing them or reading them in a book or hearing in a presentation. The last thing I'm going to talk about is sexual content in this book they talk about Masturbation a lot and go into detail which isn't an appropriate things for kids to be reading about.

     Although there are many reasons why this book is inappropriate this book does teach its readers about the real world and not just a fake fictional kid world that doesn't exist. It prepares kids for what they might see and learn when these situations occur and not only helps them know what to do but makes it less scary so they know what to expect. Many parents are asking to ban these certain books from the school library but just because its too much for one kid to handle doesn't mean its gonna be the same thing for the next. Kids need to be educated and able to read real books with real social realistic issues instead of sticking to the same safety reading. They shouldn't have banned this book because it is a humorous, interesting book that kids will miss out on if they aren't ready to mature in there reading tastes and levels.

     To sum this up "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian" by Alexie Sherman should not be banned although there is questionable material. It is a great book that should be appreciated instead of put in a non readable bin. Kids need to learn and step up what they're reading to a more mature level then they're at right now. If the book is too much for them they can always stop reading instead of having the book be completely unreadable and banned.