Journal 4 from Lexia Wilson

My active reading is going very well so far. I think the only thing that I am struggling with right now is that sometimes I am to into the reading that I forget what I am supposed to be looking for. While I am reading I write names and places in the margins. I also write what happened in that paragraph just so when I go back to look over it I know what has happened. I never had to do this before in any of my classes that I took in high school but I believe that this is a very helpful tool. If my high school teachers would have had me do this I think it would have help me out tremendously. Something that I marked in The House on Mango Street was on page 28 in the chapter called Those Who Don't. "All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes." I marked this part of the chapter because I found it interesting that in the beginning of the chapter it says "But we aren't afraid" but when they go into a different neighborhood they get scared and roll up their windows and don't look around.

I prefer the book A Long Way Gone right now because I like how its chapters are a little bit longer and it has more detail. I really just feel like I can get more into this book because it has a better story line than The House on Mango Street. I like all the action and craziness because you never know what could happen it gives me the feeling of suspense and makes me want to keep reading. Beah's writing makes me as if I am with the boys as they are on their journey to freedom from the war against the rebels. The theme that I think is the most important is survival. Beah has had to use his survival skills from the very beginning. From fleeing from Mattru Jong to wandering alone or with different groups of boys that he meets along the way from village to village. I believe that this theme is very important because if Beah never learned to survive on his own he wouldn't have been alive to write this book and tell the world his story.