I Am Happy. The School Year

When people read teen fiction, I liked to read older, more classical books like “Romeo and Juliet” or “Cyrano de Bergerac.” These types of books have always been my refuge, the place to go to when I feel forlorn, and one of the only activities I feel comfortable in. when I read I picture myself in their position with an exciting, interesting, and adventurous life to distract me from my worries. When they started to get smartphones to take selfies, my priority was to get a polaroid camera. Sometimes I took my camera to school and the kids characterized me like characters in books do. The people I read about had inspired me to show who I truly am and who i wanted to become. Literature can help many people become courageous in life. They give role models, persons to admire that can change the perspective someone has of

The Chronicles of Narnia was beautifully sitting in the corner, a holy grail of all other books in the library. The story of Narnia intoxicated me with a passionate reading frenzy. In middle school, I had become a book nerd; every moment that I had a chance I would read. The librarians knew me by name and were always cheerful to continue to see me. Every week I would discover another book that I needed to read. Many late nights and numerous page turns later, I had enjoyed my way through Hunger Games, Eragon, and Percy Jackson. Sadly, reading had begun to interfere with my grades and my social life. My parents had to speak with my teachers as to why my grades were falling, and were met with no explanation. My parents were infuriated and they told me to cut back on my reading addiction. Limiting my time spent reading habits did return my grades back to normal, but unfortunately it has broken my habits of reading and the amount of time I spent reading has reduced rapidly since

a newborn child's release. "He killed it! My father killed it!" ( Page 150) Jonas is devastated

Dave Pelzer, the author, shows throughout the book that people aren’t there for you and they could also be the cause of you trying to survive. On page 34 it says,” She slammed my face into the diaper and rubbed it from side to side.” This shows that the mom isn’t helping whatsoever, but actually she is the causing dave to survive. This is not right at all. Plus why would you want to make your kid suffer.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

When I was younger, the amount of obligations upon me fewer and less likely to affect life in the long term, it was far easier to pursue my passion for fiction. School consumed less time, and the classes were introductions to various principles rather than in depth study. The books contained within the library of my elementary school weren’t great works of literature either. They were simple stories, with simple characters and events, but I loved them anyways. These simple things made sense, a comfort blanket that I simply had to reach into a basket on a shelf to find. When library time rolled around every week, I always managed to find three or four new ones to take home, and then read them all within a day or two. I had never been a particularly athletic child; I had the time and the will to devour as many stories as I possibly could.

sat in my 8th hour room, staring at the clock, waiting for it to finally hit 3:05. After what felt like an eternity I heard the ring of the bell and a wave of students rushed out into the summer air. Summer was finally here and I couldn’t be happier. I had a whole three months to do whatever I wanted. No homework, no tests, no teachers. I hopped on my bus that would drive me home and deliver me to freedom.

Before we divulge into the topic of this essay, let me begin by stating that neither the author of the main source, Steven Johnson, nor I intend to devalue books or look down upon them. In his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he starts off talking about the importance of books. He says, “We should all encourage our kids to read more, to develop a comfort with and an appetite for reading” (Johnson 21). Reading provides many different benefits, some including “concentration, the ability to make sense of words, to follow narrative threads, to sculpt imagined worlds out of mere sentences on pages” (Johnson 23). As an avid reader myself, I have always had an interest in books.

Michael Henry’s article “Whats with This Summer Reading” has readers pondering why summer reading has students “moving one step further from reading.” Michael Henry explains that one day he saw a teenager becoming very frustrated with the book he was reading. He asked why the young man was reading the book and the boy said, because it was a summer reading assignment. This made Henry think and he began to research summer reading assignments. He wanted to find out what was causing so much frustration.

Receiving my first personal book at age 4, I became curious and soon found it to be a pastime of mine. Whether they were books about tying shoes or how babies were made, I never stopped reading. One book in particular will always be close to me. In fourth grade I started reading the book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. A few word description could not even illustrate the feelings that ran through me as I scanned the text in front of me. I soon found myself completely zoned out from the rest of the world as I read the stories of Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade. The stories of boys who persevered and endured the turmoil of the the cruel world, while they look on in the distance hoping to soon see a brighter future; fortunately, a story S.E. Hinton told perfectly. What was an assignment, soon became a yearning for. Literature became an escape from the real world. I would find myself parched after hours of reading. There was no end to the inspiration constantly flowing out of this piece of literature. At the age of 9, I was a naive little boy who had never thought about where I would go at an older age, but The Outsiders would forever shape who I would soon

My mom signed me up for the community library when I just turned 6 years old. Even if I did not know how to properly read at the time, I had to go there every afternoon to keep myself busy as an only child. Being opened to books at such an early clearly has had a major impact on my life and personality. From the local tales of my beloved Senegalese society to the deep and sophisticated French literature, I have traveled through cultures and generations. Whether it is Emile Zola’s collection of novels or Albert Camus’s philosophical texts, these books raised me and taught me about life, love, and resilience. As times went by, reading was no more a regular pastime but a detrimental part of my existence. The lessons and morality I gained from each story always pushed me to challenge the status quo, to be curious, to be adventurous but most importantly to be a problem solver.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Literature

It may be cliché, but books have always held a spot close to my heart. When I was three I had a book called Bitsy Witch that went wherever I did. When I was seven, my mom read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone every night. In middle school, I worked my way through the entire children’s section at my local library. In high school, I took every English class offered, and when I entered college I to compromise with my family that I would also pursue a pre-professional program. My time outside of class was spent on my pre-professional degree until, my senior year in college. I took two classes that focused on children’s and young adult texts. Before those classes, I hadn’t realized that specializing in Children’s literature was

Harry Potter, Junie B. Jones, Narnia, Lemony Snicket, Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Goosebumps, Magic Tree House, and the Boxcar Children: Popular book series that most kids get into. I never did. Ever since school required mandatory reading, I perceived books as hassles. School effectively turned me off of reading for pleasure. Going into middle school, where students have regular book reports and summer reading, I faced a challenge. To make it by I had to learn to live with books, as they played an integral part to my career as a student. However, my current state of mind labeled reading a hassle and wanted nothing to do with it, necessitating change. Transitioning from elementary to middle school, I matured both physically and intellectually.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn the more places you’ll go,” says the famous author Dr. Seuss. In today’s culture though, many children spend great amounts of time staring at their personal devices or watching television. Children do not realize that reading provides a form of entertainment that proves not only educational but fun, too. Providing an exciting way to learn, books offer better entertainment than a movie, since books last longer than a movie because reading takes longer, as a result of this, they give more detail. Also, books grow the reader’s imagination because they allow the reader to envision the setting themselves. Whether through fairy tales, historical