Non-Fiction RR #1

Rethinking Juvenile Justice by, John Schwartz, is about how it’s becoming harder to try teen offenders in an adult justice system.  Schwartz isn’t biased in this article, but some of the experts he speaks with in this article are.  Some of these experts are excited with the progress of getting juvenile offenders out of the adult justice system, and others are not excited at all.  Nicole Miera, sister of James Stewart, a 17 year old boy who committed suicide after being transferred from a juvenile detention center to an adult jail, also shared her thoughts on the changes taking place in justice for juveniles.
  In many major cities in the US, including New York City, Chicago, and Washington, change is happening in court systems.  These cities are trying to keep juveniles who have committed small crimes like, theft, and fighting, out of the criminal justice court.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation works with many counties across the US to have different choices for teen offenders.  Due to these changes, jailing juvenile offenders has become a less popular option.  Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, says, “If you’ve got kids who are really violent and a threat to their communities, then lock them up”.  He then goes on to say that if you have a safer and easier teen to handle in your community, handle them because it cost a lot less money.  What Soler is trying to say is, jail the really bad kids, and keep the kids that can be easily supervised out of jail all together.  His reason to do this would be you can save so much more money, since states are looking for ways to cut costs.
However, not every one agrees with that approach.  Kent Scheidegger of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation thinks this national trend of keeping juvenile offenders away from the adult justice system will be taken to far.  He states that this process could also be unfair to the victim of the crime.  Nicole Miera thinks juvenile offenders should be evaluated.  She believes, “Some juvenile offenders show such cruelty and viciousness that they should be charged as adults...”.  She then brings in her brother, saying he was different because he didn’t try to go out and murder  someone purposely (he ran over and killed someone while drunk driving).
From reading Rethinking Juvenile Justice, I found out lots of people have different opinions on this subject.  I have also found out, that each opinion has a lot of evidence to back it up, but also take it down.  Whatever decision is made about juvenile offenders in the adult legal system will be a very tough one to make, and no doubt anger some party of people.  

Works Cited

Schwartz, John. "Rethinking Juvenile Justice." Upfront 09 Dec. 2013: 8-11. Print.

Revised Response to Never Fall Down

    I’ve recently just finished the book Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick.  The main character in this book, Arn, was an eleven year old boy when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.  The book is told from Arn’s point of view, who like all the other people from Cambodia became enslaved by the Khmer Rouge.  In this book there’s two interesting perspectives missing though.  Those perspectives are the Khmer Rouge’s and Peter Pond’s, the man who adopted Arn.  These two perspectives could differ greatly from each others and Arn's, making the story much more intriguing.
   
     I think seeing the story from the Khmer Rouge’s view would be so interesting because they’re the “bad guys” in this situation.  They killed so many people ruthlessly, including fellow soldiers.  Lots of these Khmer Rouge were teenagers and carried out orders because of fear.  When Arn was finished practicing on his instrument, he asked the soldier who supervised him, why the Khmer Rouge killed.  The soldier answered by saying, “They kill only so they won’t be killed themselves.” (McCormick 96).  This shows me that the Khmer Rouge were just as scared of dying as the slaves were.  They may have not wanted to slaughter people, but they did to protect their own lives.

     Peter Pond is an american dad of three who adopted Arn, and two other kids from the orphanage in Thailand.  One thing I wonder is, why did Peter even cared so much about those kids from the orphanage in Thailand?  He cared so much about the kids he got “very worry about the sick kid, very angry if one dies.” (159).  This strikes me odd because he didn’t even have to be in Thailand, he could’ve be in America living the good life with his wife and kids.  If we would have been able to see through Peter's eyes his motives would have seemed more clear and less confusing.  

     Overall this is a great book, and is written so you could see through Arn’s eyes.  But I also think having these two other important people(s) view of what was going on would have made this book better.  You could see how the enemies saw the war and enslavement, and how Arn looked through a wealthier american’s eyes.

Response to "Hoops"

RR to Hoops

Hoops, by Walter Dean Myers was a great book to read.  This book was about a seventeen year old boy, Lonnie, living in Harlem trying to make it to the NBA with the help of his coach.  The theme of money however, added twists and turns, and surprising new discoveries to the book.  By the end of the book not only was Lonnie affected by money, but also side characters, his best friend and his girlfriend.
          For the main character in this book, Lonnie Jackson, money was always an issue.  Like many others in Harlem at the time, Lonnie and his mom struggled in poverty.  What made there situation even worse was Lonnie's father had left them, and his mother wouldn't find a job.  Since his mom was unwilling to find a job "By my senior year she was on my back just about all the time, too." (Myers 2).  Lonnie said she was always pestering him about going to college, and this really annoyed him.  This bugged [Lonnie] because even though he wanted to make it to the NBA, college wasn't really a reality with no scouts coming to see him play.  Plus he knew she was relying on him to make some good money, and get them out of poverty, and he felt that wasn't fair.    
            Having not enough money wasn't only a problem for Lonnie.  Paul, Lonnie's best friend, stole checks from peoples mail just to get some money.  His sister, Mary-Ann(also Lonnie's girlfriend), stole all of Paul's stolen checks to help raise money to bail her mother from jail.  But she got caught and one of Paul's associates, Lenny, beat her up without Paul knowing.  When Paul did find out, not only was he angry, but it made him realize he shouldn't have stolen the checks in the first place.  When Lonnie confronted him, he broke down and admitted, "You see me hanging out with Lenny trying to get into that middle-class thing..."(90).  This was Paul's way of being honest, but also realizing stealing wasn't the best way to try and make money.    
            In Hoops the theme of money interfered with Lonnie's basketball dreams, which made the book interesting and exciting.  That's why money figured as a big piece in this book.  Whether you were trying to make money, or stealing money, it was everywhere in this text.  Overall this was a well rounded book. 

Response on "Never Fall Down"

       I’ve recently just finished the book Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick.  The main character in this book is a boy, Arn, who was eleven years old when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.  The book is told from Arn’s point of view, who like all the other people from Cambodia became enslaved by the Khmer Rouge.  In this book there’s two interesting perspectives missing though.  Those perspectives are the Khmer Rouge’s and Peter Pond’s, the man who adopted Arn.

 
     I think seeing the story from the Khmer Rouge’s view would be so interesting because they’re the “bad guys” in this situation.  They killed so many people ruthlessly, including fellow soldiers.  Lots of these Khmer Rouge were teenagers and did things out of fear.  When Arn was finished practicing on his instrument, he asked the soldier who supervised him, why the Khmer Rouge killed.  He answered by saying, “They kill only so they won’t be killed themselves.” (McCormick 96).  Those shows me that the Khmer Rouge were just as scared of dying as the slaves.

     Peter Pond is an american dad of three who adopted Arn, and two other kids from the orphanage in Thailand.  One thing I wonder is, why did Peter even cared so much about those kids from the orphanage in Thailand?  He cared so much about the kids he got “very worry about the sick kid, very angry if one dies.” (159).  This strikes me odd because he didn’t even have to be in Thailand, he could’ve be in America living the good life with his wife and kids.   

     Overall this is a great book, and is written so you could see through Arn’s eyes.  But I also think having these two other important people(s) view of what was going on would have made this book better.  You could see how the enemies saw the war and enslavement, and how Arn looked through a richer american’s eyes. 

Prompt

     Something I recently did was practice for my AAU team, the Brooklyn Kings.  I made the team two weeks ago due to the fact that I had worked hard during tryouts.  I also worked had during summer vacation.  I went to three basketball camps, including a sleep away camp in New Jersey.  Making the team has also boosted my confidence.  I know feel like I have an even better shot at making the school team this year because AAU is highly competitive, and playing in AAU will only get my game better.
     Making this team has motivated me to be organized, and plan my time.  The team practices two times a week, and that makes my schedule very busy.  But I know school is the main priority before basketball.  If I don't do good in school my mom definitely won't let me play, plus the coaches will check if your failing, or not.  If you are they won't let you play, and as you can tell I'm really excited about this team.      

Draft 2

Coraline by Neil Gaiman should not be banned. Even though it's a horror book and it contains some dark images, teens wouldn't get scared or influenced. Some writers even think younger audiences could handle this book. Another reason this book shouldn't be banned, is because it teaches you to respect your parents. This is a very positive lesson that many teens could learn. 

     This book shows you how much you need your family as a teen.  When Coraline wins her family back she loves them like never before because she knows she could lose them at any moment.  For example:  "Coraline hugged her father until her arms begin to ache.”(Gaiman 140).  This shows that Coraline not only loves her dad, but she also learned her lesson about how bad you can feel if you don’t show any affection to your parents, and they’re suddenly gone the next day.  Lots of adolescents also feel that their parents are overprotective.  In this book it shows why you should trust your parents and listen to their rules, even if they might sound ridiculous.  Coraline doesn’t listen to her mom, and she temporarily loses her parents.

 
     Many parents argue that they have never seen a book for teens with images so dark, and then they read Coraline.  They say [Coraline] is in the horror section therefore it shouldn’t be read by teens.  Many parents say that their kids can’t handle the dark images in this book, like monsters, and witches.  This book also talks about tough subjects, that parents don’t want their kids learning about.  For example one subject that parents think isn’t age appropriate, is kidnapping.  In the book, [Coraline] gets kidnapped by a witch who pretends to be her mother.

 
     The thing, is even though this book is categorized in the horror section it’s not even scary.  And that’s coming from a teen all you parents!  The reason this book wasn’t scary was because it was so unrealistic, that I knew it wouldn’t happen in real life.  Any teen should be able to tell the difference from this book and reality too.  This book is child friendly too.  Diana W. Jones wrote a comment on the first page book saying this book has things "children will love.".  Another reason this book is appropriate for teens, is because Coraline is easy to relate to.  Coraline is a teen herself, so she’s going through things many of us adolescents are going through as well.  Therefore we could connect with her and the book.

 
     Coraline is a great book because it has so many positive lessons.  It shows in how she treats her mom and dad after she gets them back, with much love and care.  She’s also never rude to her parents again.  Coraline also learns to get over her fears, which your child could learn by reading this book.  Coraline should not be banned!   

A carnival of children

People in the daytime streets

Ring-a-levio warriors

Stickball heroes

Hide-and-seek knights and ladies

Waiting to sing their own sweet songs

Living out their own slam-dunk dreams

Listening

For the coming of the blues

I chose a stanza from “ Harlem: A Poem” by Walter Dean Myers to write my final response of the semester on.  Walter Dean Myers’ purpose of this poem was to describe life in Harlem.   I feel like the stanza ( seen above ) describes a street in Brooklyn, even though this poem is about Harlem, and thats why I chose it.  In this stanza Walter Dean Myers talks about the different stories of different people on a street.  He also talks about kids dream chasing.
I first made a connection with a Brooklyn street and this stanza when it talked about “ Stickball heroes”.  My dad always tells about how when he was a kid, him and his friends used to play stickball.  All the boys on the block would come out, and play from sun up to sun down.  I also made a connection with the first two lines of the stanza, and a Brooklyn street.  The first two lines talk about streets filled with children and adults during the day.  In my neighborhood, streets and avenues are busy with people during the day.  All of the culture you find in these two stanzas, you can find on a Brooklyn street.
This stanza also talks about dream chasers.  These dream chasers happen to be kids looking for a way to get famous.  In Brooklyn lots of kids have big dreams they hope to acomplish.  The first line I saw this theme in was when he said, “ Living out their slam dunk dreams”.  In this line he’s talking about all the little boys who want to make it to the NBA and get rich.  He’s also talking about the boys, turned teen, turned me who are fulfilling this dream.  
I chose this poem because it was about something I could relate to, city life.  From dreamers to legends, these are some of the people you experience if you when you come to Brooklyn.  Everything about this poem tells me Brooklyn culture.