Lush: complicated issues by Nicole Friend

I just finished a book called Lush. I think this book has a really deep meaning. It is about a girl who has to deal with growing up with a father who always gets drunk. I think this is a really complicated issue. It makes me feel sad that Samantha, the main character, has to grow up in that.

I think being an alcoholic is a really complicated issue that effects a bunch of families each year. Samantha has to learn how to deal with her father always being drunk and hiding it from her friends. She doesn't want her friends Tracy, Vanessa, and Angie to know that her father is like that. Having someone so close to you have a serious problem must be really hard. Samantha starts to write to this boy in high school about her problems. His name is AJK and he really helps Sam through her time of need.

I think alcohol is a serious social issue. Alcohol isn't the problem itself, but really its the abuse of alcohol. Once you start you cant stop and it can lead to things that are really dangerous. For example, domestic violence. You can do things that you really don't mean to do but you are drunk and you don't know what is happening. Some families suffer from violence because of alcohol. It's a very powerful thing. For example, in the book Samantha has a little brother named Luke. She is really protective of him but one day, they were home with their dad who was drunk. They were in the living room making a lot of noise when her dad came in and told them to be quiet. Luke is only three so he laughed. Then the dad hit him over the head with a beer bottle. It was an awful mistake what happened. And it was one of the awful side effects of being drunk.

Also, when you are drunk you make bad decisions. Some people drink and drive which is a really bad decision. You think that you will be alright but really, you don't know what you are doing and you can get into an accident. For example, in the book Lush Samantha's dad picks her up from the library once in a car but he is drunk. Samantha knew that but she had no choice but to get in the car. Her dad didn't get into a real accident but he did hit a mailbox and Sam was terrified. In the book it said, "The entire car ride i was huddled up in the back of seat of the car hoping nothing bad would happen". I think that's really sad and no one would have to suffer from that.
Overall, Lush was a really great book. There is a huge social issue in it and that is the abuse of alcohol.

Princess Diaries Part 2 (spolier Alert)

Dear Diary,

     I just finished reading “The Princess Diaries” by Meg Cabot. It is the third book in the series and it is about Mia’s love life. She has a best friend names Lily who has an older brother named Michal, who Mia is in love with. The thing is that she has a boyfriend named Kenny. They problem is, she doesn’t like him. I think that must suck to be Mia I mean what does she do? She can’t tell Lily that she loves Michal. It must be so confusing for her.

   
     Anyway, I think that the big idea of the whole story is that Mia finally found herself confidence. In the beginning of the story Mia was really shy and couldn’t really talk to anyone about anything even Lily who is her best friend. She couldn’t even talk to her own boyfriend. That is kind of sad because he should be the person she should be able to talk to most. She isn't always so close with her dad but she was close enough that it mattered that she didn't tell him. Her dad and mom split up and her mom is dating someone else. I think Mia is over that and doesn't really care. It's more about

    
     I think that Mia has trust issues. She can’t talk to anyone about her problems especially the people who are the closest to her. Usually she can talk to anyone and her mom who she is really close to. It’s just that she didn’t tell anyone. But by the end of the book, she go her secret out in the open which I think it really big of her.

     
     Overall,I think that Mia has changed a lot throughout the book. I am proud of her and i think that its good that the truth finally came out. In the end, she got Michal and she broke up with Kenny. She just needed help from her friends. If she came out in the beginning of the book, he friends would have  helped her a lot earlier. 

Love,

Becca

Princess in love by Meg Cabot

I am reading “The Princess in Love” it is part of the series “The princess diaries” by Meg Cabot. I am not that far into the book, but so far it is really good. I already read the first two books so I understood the beginning more. It is about a fourteen year old girl named Mia. She is a freshman in high school and she lives a pretty average life. She is just a regular teenage girl who is trying to survive school. I can relate to that, I am not a freshman but I am thirteen and I mean every teenager is going through the same thing, trying to get through school. The thing is that Mia is basically living a double life. She is a princess. Her grandmother is a queen to a small European town called Genovia, and her dad is a prince. She is the next heir to the throne.

Mia isn’t exactly the princess type. She isn’t girly and she doesn’t approve of things like princess. She just isn’t one at heart. Mia has a best friend named Lily. That it pretty much it. I think that Mia really looks down on herself and thinks she is ugly and stupid just because she isn’t the most popular girl in school. I feel bad for Mia, it has to be hard to have your self esteem that low all the time. I think if people tried, they could really help Mia.

In “The Princess in Love”, Mia has a boyfriend. The only problem is that she doesn’t exactly like him. Mia has never had a boyfriend before and now that she finally got one, she doesn’t even like him. She is really frustrated and is trying to find a way to break up with him but she is just too nice. I think that this is also part of her self esteem problem. Mia has no experience with boys. She always thought of herself as a big ugly freak that would never ever get a boyfriend. This must have come as big surprise to Mia and now she is caught off guard. Even though she didn’t admit it, I think Mia is really just so surprised that she thinks this isn’t even real. She thinks that it is all just a big joke, or it’s not happening and she is asleep somewhere in a different world.

“ I sat there listening to Grandmere and sebastiono chatter away about how pathetic it is that I will never be able to wear a strapless dress since I have nothing to show.” That quote really makes me sad. I mean here Mia is, sitting there with her confidence pretty low and her own grandmother has to make everything worse by telling her she has nothing to show. It’s her own grandmother talking about her in front of her in a nasty way. I felt kind of mad when I read that and upset and I felt really bad for Mia. They talk about her like she doesn’t even exist.

I hope by the end of the book Mia will gain back self assurance and tell herself that she is pretty and not a freak. I hope that Mia will understand that she is a princess, a graceful lucky princess who has friends and a boyfriend and people actually do like her. I think she just is so insecure that she thinks people dislike her. Mia is in high school now and her whole world is turning upside down, I hope that she can get it back right side up