The novel "I'm Not Scared" explores the playful and interesting world of childhood through the eyes of a nine year old kid. In the hot, dry summer of 1978, Michele, the main character, and his friends have nothing better to do than play new games and dares. Their small town Aqua Treverse only occupies four houses. Michele and his friends usually ride on their bikes across the deserted countryside, while the adults stay indoors shielding from the enormous heat. This gives the children the freedom to do anything they want.
Like any other gang in the world, this one has a leader as well. His name is Skull and he's only 12 years old. Skull would not even stop at forcing a girl to expose her private parts to the whole gang just to prove he is the leader and everything has to be done his way. After being falsely punished, Barbara has been ordered to do the forfeit. To spare the fat girl who tags along a humiliating forfeit, Michele decides to do the forfeit as a result of harsh demands by Skull. This is the first time in the novel that Michele uses his heroism and sticks up to Skull. He knows that Skull is cruel and that he asked for too much. Michele is smart and knows that he can't fight Skull by himself but would have to involve the whole gang. Therefore he calls upon a second vote on the forfeit so he can do it instead of Barbara. The gang of course backs up Michele.
As a result of accepting the forfeit, Skull decides that Michele explores an abandoned farmhouse in a remote location. Michele unaware of what he is about to get himself into, rather carefully climbs and crosses the farmhouse. Realizing that he was lucky to land on soft material after his jump from the house, he discovers a hole. As he uncovers it, he finds out that a boy occupies it. Due to the limited time he had to investigate the situation as the gang was closing down on him, he decides to keep it a secret. Michele knows that Skull would declare himself responsible for finding the boy and therefore he decides to keep it a secret. After all it's finder's keepers. He feels threatened by Skull and doesn't want such a big discovery to be taken away from him. I mean we all want to be appreciated for our good deeds but telling the others will make it only worse.
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
Setting: This book starts out in this kids house his name is crash. Then they go to the arcade. That is where they spend most of the story. Then close to the end they go to the riverside.
In the murder mystery “Scared to Death”, there are several suspects to who had scared Marcus Farley to his death. The suspects to the mystery are Claire, the faithful housekeeper; Tom Paisley, the Scottish medium; Sasha, Marcus’s Australian model wife; and Rachel, who is the younger sister to Jane Farley and had been in London for 27 years. Jane was Marcus’s daughter, who committed suicide and is claimed to have been a ghost. Marcus Farley read a threatening letter that was stabbed into the door with a knife, which caused him to have a heart attack and die. He could not find his nitroglycerin pills in the medicine drawer. Claire had the motive, opportunity, and the means to kill Marcus Farley.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.
Milloy draws his audiences' attentions by retelling a tragic story of a 1st grader named Maurice getting run over in a school zone. He describes the driver as "barreling through...and not even slowing down after striking the boy" who "suffered serious head injuries." Milloy's story wins sympathy from the readers. The boy was just beginning to learn the complexities of life when he was forced to start all over again because of a reckless driver. Fatal injuries, especially those effecting children, touch the hearts of most adults. Parents of any social status wonder is this could ever happen to their kids and how devastating an event like this would be. In response to the young boy's accident, volunteers sympathized fore the inner city school and built a playground to replace the concrete slab the kids used to play on. Most intended readers can relate to not having play grounds for their kids to enjoy. Parents almost always want nice facilities for their kids to play on whether it be a stick with a ball attached, a local park, a school playground, or an extravagant sports court in their back yard, depending on social class. Sympathy extends to children who are deprived of recreational facilities
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
Inevitably, there comes a point in everybody’s life at which they have an experience that completely alters their view of the world. This moment is when one loses his or her innocence, or comes of age, and he or she realizes that they do not live in a utopian Golden Age. Parents are charged with the monumental duty of protecting their children’s innocence, but everybody inescapably grows up. This experience can be anything from an embarrassing situation at school to coming within seconds of death. In the short story “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien, the author tells the true story of his daughter confronting him and asked him if he had ever killed anyone. In an effort to be a good parent and protect the nine-year-old’s innocence, the author does not share with her the story he goes on to tell to the reader. He explains how many years ago, he was serving in the army and was taking a shift guarding his troop’s campsite when all of a sudden, a young man from the opposing army came walking up the trail. Without a second thought, O’Brien killed the boy with a grenade, and he lost his innocence after realizing he had killed a defenseless man without hesitation. Tim O’Brien develops Ambush as a coming of age story through the use of literary devices.
Children have often been viewed as innocent and innocent may be a nicer way to call children naive. Since children’s lives are so worry free they lack the knowledge of how to transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. Their lack of knowledge may be a large part of their difficulties growing up, which could be a few rough years for many. In books like the boy in the striped pajamas the story is told from the point of view of a little boy, this way we get a full view of how innocent he is. In this book the writer shows the reader first hand how a child viewed the holocaust and how his innocence cost him his life. Then in books like the perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a teen whom is struggling with the transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. In this book the writer gives a first hand look at how difficult it can be to transition into an adolescent. Charlie has many difficulties in this book; he is in search of his identity and how to fit in.
The discussion of children and school also gives well meaning of an organized and well-balanced village the people have put together, one the average parent would want their children raised in. “They tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands (p.445).” The thought of children playing also illustrates of a positive outlook for the rest of the story, a sense of happiness.
Michele's compassion is his most prominent characteristic that makes him appealing to the reader. Throughout the novel, he exhibits empathy well beyond his years, often making readers forget that he is just nine. This can be seen clearly in three main instances. First, when he goes after his sister when she has fallen over (pg. 4) despite his own fears. Secondly, offering to complete the forfeit in place of Barbra when Skull forces her to complete an embarrassing forfeit. Finally, and most evidently, when he takes care of Filippo. This makes for a positive contrast with the rest of Acqua Traverse who seem to lack any compassion. When describing places and characters he reveals his unique way of viewing things that demonstrates his childlike imagination and innocence. He often combines reality and fantasy, such as when describing the Wicked Witch' (pg. 89) to Maria.
Children are seen as adorable, fun loving, and hard to control. Ida Fink uses a child in “The Key Game” to be the key to this family’s life. The setting is placed during the start of World War II; Jews all around were being taken. Fink uses a boy who doesn’t look the traditional Jewish, “And their chubby, blue-eyed, three-year-old child” (Fink). As they read on the emotional connection is stronger because there is a face to go with this character. Fink draws a reader in by making connections to a family member the reader may know. A blue-eyed, chubby child is the picture child of America. A child in any story makes readers more attached especially if they have children of their own. The child is three way too young to be responsible for the safety of the father, yet has to be. Throughout the story, we see how the mother struggles with making her child play the game because no child should be responsible like
Are adults overprotective of their children? To what point do we protect children? Where should the line be drawn? Along with those questions is how easily children can be influenced by these same adults. Two poets, Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins, express the ideas of how easily children can be manipulated and how sometimes adults think they are protecting their innocent children, when in reality they are not. Wilbur and Collins express these ideas in their poems through numerous literary devices. The literary devices used by Wilbur and Collins expose different meanings and two extremely different end results. Among the various literary devices used, Wilbur uses imagery, a simple rhyme scheme and meter, juxtaposition of the rational and irrational, and a humorous tone to represent the narrator’s attempt to “domesticate” irrational fears. Conversely Collins uses symbols, historical interpretations, imagery, diction and other literary devices to depict the history teacher’s effort to shield his students from reality. In the poems, “A Barred Owl,” by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher,” by Billy Collins, both poets convey how adults protect and calm children from their biggest, darkest fears and curiosities.
In the first chapter of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the author uses an intriguing combination of pictures and words to draw her readers through the story with many surprising twists and turns similar to the way a carnival fun house lures in curious adventurers . As the author first introduces her father to the story, one would believe him to be a loving and engaging father. However, once Bechdel begins comparing their playful exchange with the “Icarian Games” (pg. 379) and noting his distraction to the game because of his concern with
I think it was at its peak from about the age of twelve to roughly