EDU 319

For my final post I thought I’d talk about The Perks of Being A Wallflower. Although this book doesn’t really discuss a social issue, it does discuss many issue that young teenagers face everyday. The main character Charlie is a slightly awkward boy who enters high school and has to deal with things like making friends, doing drugs and girls. The book is written in letters that are addressed to “friend” but you never know who that person is, so they seem like diary entries. This book feels very personal because Charlie is letting out all his feelings and insecurities to the readers. It makes us feel like we are just talking to another peer who is possibly having the same problems as us!

Sadly in the end we find out that Charlie has been molested when he was a child. Although this is horrifying and scary Charlie is okay. He continues to tell his anonymous friend everything, even though it must have been hard to talk about.  I think that this book sends a positive message to teenagers that talking to someone about your problems, and life in general, feels good and can help relieve stress. Too often people keep their problems bottled up and it eventually takes a toll on them, like all those teens who felt like they were being bullied at school so they ended up taking their own lives because they didn’t feel they had anyone to talk to about it. Charlie’s letters tell us that even if it is hard to talk about things even just writing them down and letting someone read them can help. 

There once was a girl named Charlie. She was really pretty lucky. She lived in Rome, Italy and was going to school there. Every day she got to eat some of her favorite foods, like pizza!

But Charlie didn’t really feel very lucky. She lived in an apartment with six other girls who were all mean, and treated her like their servant.

 She had to wash their dishes and clean all their rooms. When she was not in the room they would say mean things about her. It was awful!

Everyone she tried talking to about her situation from home told her the same thing. “Fall in love with a charming Italian man, Charlie! Stop thinking about them!”

 But Charlie wasn’t really feeling it. 

On her walk to school every morning she passed many art galleries, but she was too sad to really notice.

On one particular day when she got to class she realized she had dropped her wallet somewhere on the way! “Ugh!” she said. “And I thought this experience couldn’t get any worse!” 

But that afternoon she got a call on her cell phone. “Ciao, Charlie Ross? My name is Lorenzo and I work at the Vatican Museum. I believe I found your wallet out front this morning.”

“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed. “Grazie!”

 “Can you come by tomorrow to pick it up?” said Lorenzo.

“Of course, see you tomorrow” said Charlie.

The next day she walked into the Vatican Museum to pick up her wallet. Lorenzo met her in the front and offered her a private tour. Charlie was in a little bit of a rush but she accepted anyway.

Immediately she fell in love with the museum and all the art in it. All the unhappiness that she had felt about living in Rome with her evil roommates disappeared. There was so much life and history!

Everyday after that one Charlie made an effort to visit art museums and sites all around Rome. She even travelled to other parts of Italy to see the art there! She realized that she really was one of the luckiest girls in the world.

With this new confidence and hobby, Charlie realized she had made the right decision to come to school in Italy. She moved out of the apartment she was living in and got an adorable one that had a beautiful view of the city she had come to love. And believe it or not, she lived happily ever after.

The book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein tells the story of a little boy and a tree. In the book the little boy uses the tree for all the things he loves to do. Swinging, shade and apples! As the boy grows older he need more and eventually cuts down the treeto use it as a boat. The tree gives and gives and only takes the boys love in return. It seems happy giving to the boy, and only gets sad when it thinks it has nothing left to give. Some people interpret this book as people taking things from trees with no regard to how it might effect them.

I have read as well that some people interpret this story as a child taking everything from their parents and never learning how to do things for themselves because they are spoiled. Others however, say that the tree loves the boy and it shows the unconditional love between parents and children. Could the issue of bad parenting be a social issue?

Regardless this constant issue of people asking or just taking things from trees and the eenvironmentis a issue as shown in my previous social issue blogs about Hoot and The Lorax. 

The book Hoot by Carl Hiassen is a book meant for middle school readers. It is about a kid who is new to his school in Florida and is having problems with bullies. However, somehow the bully ends up leading him to a nearby forest that is the home to a family of borrowing owls. When he finds out a local business wants to destroy the owls’ home to set up a new location, the main character, Roy, makes a few friends while trying to save the owls. Hiassen has a way of writing that is really relatable and fun to read for kids. He also brings up the age old subject of being the “new kid” in town, which many young teenagers can relate to. Once he as captured the readers with his humor and subjects that teenagers like to read about, he brings in something that many young adults are unaware or not as familiar with, which is the destroying of owl homes. This book is enjoyable to read and informative without being too pushy. 

Hi, my name is Lily Hoffman and I am from Washington DC. Today I would like to talk about the book “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss. This story discusses the dangers of pollution and destroying the environment. Dr. Seuss uses colorful pictures, rhymes and silly made up words in a fantastical made up land to make this topic applicable and understandable to children. 

In the beginning of the story the “Once-ler” tells the story of how the place where he lives has become so dark and dreary. When the once-ler arrives in this place he sees all the beautiful trees and animals and instead of simply enjoying them as they are, he decides to take down a tree to see what he can make of it. When the Lorax speaks his famous words “I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees!” the Once-ler says “there is no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.” The Once-ler has the same attitude as many others that doing something bad to the environment just once will do nothing bad. However, as the story progresses we learn that doing anything that harms the environment, whether or not we think it is small hurts it and everyone living in it.

As the Once-ler cuts down more and more trees to create his infamous Thneads the animals living around the area are having problems. First the Bar-ba-loots have no more fruit to eat, then the Swans have no more clean air to breath and finally the fish’s water is no longer clean enough to live in. Many times people forget that the environment is a home to many other organisms and ruining their home and force them to leave or die out.

 However, as the Lorax pleads for the once-ler to stop the destruction to his environment the Once-ler says, ”business is business and business must grow!…I biggered my money, which everyone needs!” These are the attitudes too often for adults and possibly by showing kids early on the sadness that ends up overcoming the Once-ler after everyone has left and the trees are all gone it will help with the notion that the earths resources are not infinite. 

I have always been a very avid reader. My parents would read to me every night when I was little and even after I could read to myself my dad would still read me big chapter books as a special treat. This made reading continue to be fun and special.

A book that made a difference in my life was The Lorax by Dr Seuss. In this book the residents use up the resources too much too quickly and all of a sudden there are no more truffula trees left. This made an impact on me because my mom is also a landscaper and her job is to plant trees and flowers in peoples garden. I have grown up knowing the importance of making sure we do not take away too much of the environment and re planting trees.

This book had so many colors and funny made up characters that it was a more fun way of being taught about how taking away all the earths resources can be harmful to others. From an early age I also became a vegetarian because of my concerns for the environment. 

Although I can remember my mom and dad reading Goodnight Moon to me from a very early age, and on a daily basis, a book that has stuck with me since I first read it is called Stephanies Ponytail. This book is about a girl who comes to school one day with a ponytail hairdo. The kids in her class make fun of her but eventually start copying her. Each day after the ponytail Stephanie changes her hairdo to something different and everyone in her school still copies her! Finally, she threatens to shave her head the following day. When she comes to school everyone has shaved their head except her. She proudly sports her original ponytail. 

I have no idea why this book has stuck with me for so long. Today in class we were talking about seeing ourselves in books. I have always had really long hair and when I was little my mom always fought with me to get my hair done, which for some reason is so impossible to let your parents do when you are little. I think that I saw myself in this story because of my daily battle with hairdos.

When I looked up this story tonight to remember the title I read the preview to make sure it was the same story I remembered. The preview focused on the fact that Stephanie was trying to steer clear of the conformity of having the same hairdo as other kids.  I had not really remembered the story this way, it was just the subject of the mom doing her daughters hair.