Every Day Reading Response (New and Possibly Improved!)

Imagine living a life where you change bodies every day, and you can't hold onto anything precious in your life. The problem is that there are things you want to keep with you, but as you cling to them in the impossible hope that this time, you might stay, you're ripped from the life that you live at that moment, and soon, that life becomes a distant memory. In the story Every Day by David Levithan, the main character A struggles with this in every waking moment of his existence. The story begins when he first meets a girl called Rhiannon, and from the moment he sees her for the first time, he can't imagine the idea that he would have to let go of her, just like he had to do for all of his previous lives. As a result, A keeps trying to be with her, without any regard to the lives of the people that he takes over for a day. A's love for Rhiannon is so strong that it controls him, which ultimately puts the power in their relationship into Rhiannon's hands, and because A loves her so much, he does not try to fight back against her.

Rhiannon's power over A is shown multiple times in the story. For example, on pages 27-28 of the story, A thinks to himself, "This is hard for me. I have gotten so used to what I am, and how my life works. I never want to stay. I'm always ready to leave. But not tonight. Tonight I'm haunted by the fact that tomorrow he'll (the boy who's life is taken over by A at that moment) be here and I won't be. I want to stay. I pray to stay. I close my eyes and wish to stay." This quote is saying that A feels as if it's unfair that he has to leave and he can't stand the fact that he cannot be with Rhiannon. Also, the word haunted means disturbed or distressed, which shows just how emotionally troubling the idea of leaving Rhiannon is to A. Similarly, at the end of the story, Rhiannon tells A that they can't be together. This devastates A, since although he knows it's true, A doesn't want to believe her. This shows that in the relationship between Rhiannon and A, Rhiannon has the power to either enrapture A, or completely destroy him.

A's love for Rhiannon keeps him from opposing her actions. First, on page 4 of the story, A thinks "I turn, and the girl standing there is transparent in her emotions- tentative and expectant, nervous and adoring." This line shows the beauty that A sees in Rhiannon, and explains how captivated he was from the moment he saw her. Also, the way that he sees Rhiannon as tentative and expectant shows that he believes that he can give her what she wants, which sadly for A, led to him giving her many things. Second, throughout the story, A feels more hatred towards Justin (Rhiannon's commanding boyfriend), and as much as he wants to do something about him, he doesn't do anything because he doesn't risk ruining his relationship with Rhiannon. This shows that A is willing to give up his desires just so that he can attempt to continue his already forsaken relationship with Rhiannon. He also doesn't do anything because he knows that Rhiannon still has hope for Justin, and A is willing to do whatever he can to appease her. Throughout the story, A is too afraid to risk hurting his relationship with Rhiannon, and as a result, he does not voice his opinion against anything Rhiannon might say.

To sum up, A's love for Rhiannon is what controls the power and resistance in their relationship. Because A loves Rhiannon so much, he is unwilling to do anything that might make Rhiannon dislike him. His love also gives Rhiannon the ability to control A's emotions, as she can end the relationship when she realizes that it would be impossible for them to be together for the rest as their lives, which affects A greatly. This story is an example of the fact that love can be a very controlling factor in relationships in the world. This is especially true for teens, since love can be a huge stressor for them.
Love can dictate the actions of people, and this can happen without the person ever even realizing it.

"No Job? Get Lost!" Reading Response

The article "No Job? Get Lost!" by Andrew Higgins is about an area of Sweden called Svalbard, where unemployment and homelessness is illegal. People who suffer from either of these are deported. Svalbard is a quiet area, with about 100 cases per year that the police have to handle. Instead, polar bears are the big threat, and a rule was created saying that anyone going outside of the city limits of Longyearbyen (a city in Svalbard) must carry a weapon that they know how to use. I believe that the author of this article intended to show the world how different Svalbard was from the rest of the world.

In the article, the author uses imagery to describe Svalbard by saying it is an archipelago located 800 miles from the North Pole. He also says it is shrouded in near-total darkness for six months. The author wants you to imagine how isolated and dark it is in Svalbard compared to the rest of the world. He supports his opinion by not quoting any residents who might enjoy living in Svalbard. He includes the perspectives of people who say that it's very different from the rest of Norway, and also, the last line of the article quotes someone who says that if you wanted to live in Svalbard, you were slightly warped.

From the article, I realized that although Svalbard has such a different way of life compared to other parts of the world, the people there function in their own way. The people there have adapted to the way that they have to live because of their geographic location, and the way that they live is normal to them. In Svalbard, people can trust each other, so much so that people there leave their car keys in the ignition, and yet it's perfectly safe to do that. The region of Svalbard may be a harsher condition to live in, but because of that, the people there are more connected, and their way of life may seem foreign to us, but that's the way that they choose to live.

"Darkness Too Visible" Response

The article "Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon talks about how some young adult books contain very dark stories. Topics that are covered in these stories include murder, drug use, and self-mutilation. Some people believe that teenagers should be allowed to read books like these, while other people are trying to prevent teens from reading them. The large controversy about this topic shows just how strongly people feel about it. Likewise, the author of this article feels that teens should not be allowed to read young adult fiction.

In this article, the author used strong imagery to show readers how disturbing some books can be. She mentions the book "Scars", and goes on to say that the cover depicts a horribly scarred forearm. Also, at the beginning of the article, she states a narrative from Amy Freeman. The narrative is used to give an example of one person's experience with these darker stories. The author only includes one opinion from a parent, which is the narrative in the beginning. This is most likely because a fair number of parents would say that kids need to be exposed to young adult books.

I disagree with Megan Cox Gurdon about whether or not young adult books are appropriate for children. The article says "teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is". In reality however, the "dark" things that young adult novels talk about are things that can happen to children, and reading about them can help expose kids to these issues. By learning about these things, children can try to avoid these things, and also defend themselves. Also, like the author says, reading about things like drugs and murder won't necessarily make kids do things like these.

City of Bones Reading Response (spoilers)

Imagine leading an average life where nothing that surprising happens, but you’re pretty content with it. Suddenly, after one night, everything you’ve ever known is destroyed, and you don’t know who to trust. Not even your own mother. The book City of Bones by Cassandra Clare is about a girl named Clary Fray. One night, her mother is kidnapped by demons, and along with a mysterious group of teenagers who call themselves shadowhunters, Clary begins to learn the truth behind herself and the strange things that happened that night. Because of all of this, two of the most important themes in this story are identity and growing up.



Identity is a very prevalent theme in City of Bones. First, a big part of the story is about Clary learning more about her shadowhunter heritage. She is forced to choose whether she wants to stick to her mundane (human) lifestyle or learn shadowhunter ways, and also whether she wants to be with her old friend Simon, a human, or Jace, a shadowhunter. Consequently, she becomes unsure of who she should be. Parallel to this, page 436 of the story states “and in that moment Clary saw that this was no joke, that Jace was not just playing along for his own purposes. He really thought Valentine was his father returned to him.” Knowing that Valentine, the main antagonist, was his father, and not Michael Wayland lead to him feeling more insecure and abandoned. Both Clary and Jace are so controlled by their identity issues that it affects their relationships with other people. From this, the author wants us to know that identity can be a very troubling issue for people and it can spread to other issues as well.



Growing up is also one of the most significant themes in City of Bones. For example, when Clary’s mother is kidnapped, Clary is forced to deal with her new experiences with Simon being her only connection to her past. As a result of this, she ends up maturing much faster. Also, she has to live at the institute (a haven for shadowhunters) where she’s forced to find a way to fit in with the other shadowhunters. Clary begins to develop stronger opinions about certain things, which are different from the opinions she had in the protected environment that her mother provided for her. This is like what teenagers go through since they start to debate more strongly about things. This makes this theme important since teenagers need to know that their opinions can make a change, which Clary demonstrates.



To sum up, the characters of City of Bones go through a lot of change during the events of City of Bones, and many of their issues are related to identity and growing up. Nowadays, these can be some problems for teenagers and this book shows how Clary deals with them. Really, being a teenager is the gap between being a child and being an adult. To most people, identity means who you are. However, to the people who delve deeper into the meaning of identity and growing up, these words become complex topics that not only mean who you are and becoming older, but instead mean how you plan to show your place to the world.

Every Day

Every Day by David Leviathan takes place from the perspective of a mysterious character called A. A does not have his own body, but instead is forced to switch bodies every day. This becomes an issue for him when one day, he ends up in the body of a boy named Justin. Because of this, he meets a girl named Rhiannon (Justin's girlfriend) and falls in love with her. As days go by, A keeps trying to get back to Rhiannon in the different bodies he ends up in.

I thought that Every Day was an amazing book. It has a very unique plot, with the main character switching bodies every 24 hours. I think that A is not the kind of person who gives up, but instead would persevere through hard things. For example, his whole life involves being a different person each day. Sometimes he gets to be a normal teenager, but other times, he's forced to be a teenager who is depressed, or who drinks a lot. He has to put up with this, but he manages to deal with these kinds of days. He also has to deal with the knowledge that even if wanted to stay in one life (like when he was Justin), he has to move on to another person. A goes through a lot of sadness because of this, but he still keeps going.