"Darkness Too Visible" Response

          The article, "Darkness Too  Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon is about the author's opinion that Young Adult books are inappropriate for teenagers. Throughout the article the author provides many evidence to support her claim that Young Adult books contain dark topics such as pederasty, kidnapping, incest and brutal beatings. For evidence the author uses many challenged books to show that Young Adult books have many inappropriate topics that parents wouldn't want their kids to read about. There's many parents that don't want their kids to learn about disturbing topics of reality or the fictional world. Even the most popular books can have a dark side to it. 

          Throughout "Darkness Too Visible" the author uses a lot of loaded words. For example, the author used words such as brutality, ugliness, crude, despoliation and other words to describe Young Adult books. These words make me feel that Young Adult books aren't appropriate for teenagers after all. This is because such words indicate negativity in young adult books. Throughout the article the author uses a lot of parent's/adult's perspective but does not include a Young Adult book reader's perspective. 

          The article is definitely argumentative. I disagree with the author claim that Young Adult books are inappropriate for teenagers. Although young adult books can have dark topics, not all of them belong to the category. What is a dark topic depends on the reader as a whole. For example if the reader like violent topics, the reader would have a violent taste. Also if the reader is comfortable with reading Young Adult books with dark topics then there shouldn't be any problem. However the article did make me realize something. What I realized is that many books I have read that I felt comfortable reading were actually some of the challenged books because of adult/parent concerns of dark topics throughout the books. I also realized that parents and other adults think about dark topics in general. They don't think about what readers can learn from them. There's so much values and ideas young readers can learn from Young Adult books. Moreover the article included a lot of parents/adults perspective but didn't bother to add reader's perspective, opinions or quotes. I think Megan Cox Gurdon could've made her argument more stronger by adding reader's perspective because people who actually experienced reading Young Adult books are way different than people who knows about the topics of a Young Adult book. Overall I think throughout the article the author, Megan Cox Gurdon could've added about readers who actually experienced Young Adult books.

Reading Response: Legend by Marie Lu

                How would you feel if you have lost a family member and saw them die right in front of your eyes? How would you react or deal with it? I would cry everyday until my eyes ran out of tears. I would hate eating eating or doing anything I used to love to do. The smile on my face face would disappear and sorrow would fill my heart. In Legend by Marie Lu two of the main characters lose their family members and are left in sorrow. Legend is a fantastic must-read book. It is about 15 year old June, who is the Republic's little prodigy and 15 year old Day, who is the Republic's most wanted criminal. Though Day seems like a very dangerous person his personality and actions aren;t as malicious as they seem. When June's brother Metias is murdered, the top suspect is Day, and it is June's mission to capture Day and make him pay for his crimes. From different worlds June and Day fight for revenge, honor, freedom and each other. Throughout the book, death appears many times in Legend and we can learn a lot of values from them and should realize that there's always hope in the end.

                A troubling issue that appears in Legend a lot is death. For instance, Day's top weakness is his family. When Day refuses to expose himself, a commander who is called Commander Jameson, orders to kill Day's mother. The death of this innocent civilian is very disturbing. This was very shocking to me because Day's mother was very close to his heart. As a reader when I read it, it made me feel like I lost my own mom. Day's mother's death brought tears in my eyes. The death of a mother now makes me want to hug my mom everyday and try to always keep her happy. When Commander Jameson orders to kill Day's mother Day says, "The moment the Captain shot my mother plays over over in my head like a movie stuck on the same scene." (Page 165) This quote is meaningful, because it shows how much the death of his mother affected him. The quote also shows how devastated Day must have been at the moment to see his mother's death right in front of his eyes. The mood expressed in the quote is remorseful, vulnerable and powerless, because the death of Day's mother somehow makes him feel guilty that it was because of him that his mother died. It make me feel very devastated, because it reminds me of the death of my great-grandmother. She was very close to me. I loved her and always took care of her when she came to visit. At a young age losing my great-grandmother affected me in many ways. I cried until my eyes were dry and at first I refused to accept her death, On her funeral, I saw her as a beautiful woman lying down on the bed. That day it seemed like her face gave off this beautiful glow and lit up the room. I imagined her sleeping peacefully. I was angry that people were crying and disturbing her sleep. When I had realized that my great-grandmother had gone into a deep sleep and would never wake up, I was crying too and there was an ache in my heart as if someone was ripping me apart. As you can see, everyone can relate to a death loss, at least once in their life, to how Day felt when his mother had died. All in all, death is one of the troubling issues in Legend.

                Although there are many troubling issues in Legend, we can learn a lot from them. For example, we can learn to make sacrifices for our siblings. One of the many examples of how Day's brother, John, made a sacrifice for his brother is the execution of John. In this scene Day was suppose to be executed for the several crimes he has committed. However, John decides to sacrifice himself and be executed instead. When John, Day and June try to escape, the text says, "You need more time," John says, "They want an execution, they'll get one." He starts running away from us. Back down the hall. Back towards the firing squad yard." (Page 293) This quote is really meaningful, because it shows that just to get Day more time to escape, John sacrifices himself in order to save Day. The quote also shows how much John loves and cares for his brother. It shows that just for his brother, John would be glad to take Day's place in the execution. In reality not many people make sacrifices for his or her brothers or sisters. John is included in those few that do make a sacrifice for their siblings. Though dying for your siblings is an example of making sacrifices, it is not the only way you can make sacrifices. For instance, if you have a piece of cake and it's the last piece, you can make a sacrifice and give all of it to your sibling (s). Also if your siblings really want something from you, you can make a sacrifice by giving them what they want. All in all, John's sacrifice for his brother teaches us that one should be valiant to sacrifice for his or her siblings even if it means to die for them.

                As the book continues, the author shows although life throws you a lot of obstacles, you can always overcome them day by day. Also by facing life troubles, people should realize that there's always hope in the end and that nothing is impossible. When June asks Day why he chose to call himself Day, he answers, "Each day means a new 24 hours. Each day means everything is possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time." (Page 304) This quote is meaningful, because it shows how a day goes. There are so many things that could happen in a day. You could be born or you could die. You could accomplish something and feel like you're on top of the worlds or you could fail at something and feel like you're nothing at all. Even after facing many obstacles, there's hope and a new day to face your fears. As someone once said, "Every cloud has a silver lining"-Unknown meaning that you should be hopeful because difficult times always lead to better days. Overall, the quote made me realize that although the characters face many troubles in the book, there's always hope in the end.

                The book Legend by Marie Lu has taught me a lot of things. I learned that dealing with grief could be very difficult to face when someone truly experience a horrible situation themselves. I also learned that we should always try to make sacrifices for our younger siblings even if the situation seems too difficult or scary to face. You never know when something might happen to them. Lastly, I learned that each day could bring a new possibility or change to the world. Each day could be a new beginning . Other readers can connect to this book, because at least once in their life they lose someone they dearly loved and cared for. They also faced grief and had difficulty facing it. There are times when people lose hope and just give up on life. Legend shows how one of the main character, Day faces his own grief of his mother and brother's death. This can help people overcome their grief and still have hope. Though Legend has a lot of troubling issues, we can learn many important things and never give up on hope.