Ayesha Chaudary
For the realistic fiction unit, I read the book Dead Ends written by Erin Jade Lange.
In the novel, the realistic setting takes place in Columbia, Michigan. The novel focuses on two teenagers: Dane Washington and Billy Drum who has Down Syndrome. Dane Washington is a high school student who gets detention almost every day and is on the verge of getting suspended. However, one day when Dane is on his way to school, Billy D joins him and asks for his protection so he wouldn’t be bullied. At first, Dane rejects him because he isn’t interested in helping him but when Dane about to get suspended from school, the warden hears from Billy that Dane will be helping him and offers Dane a chance to redeem himself by helping Billy. With …show more content…
The author writes, “I can’t skip school, Billy D. I’m one detention away from getting expelled... You know what happens if I get kicked out of school?’ I yelled at his back as I chased him down the steps. ‘That’s it! I don’t get to come back in a week. It’s over. I’m out! Is that what you want… Yeah, fine. Fine!’ I shouted, dragging him back toward my house. ‘I’ll go with you, okay?’ I must be out of my mind” (234-236). In this quote, the author uses suspense as a craft move because it is discovered that if Dane receives one more detention, he will officially be suspended from school and that would be determined to Billy whether or not he chooses to support and turn against Dane. Suspense is represented in this key scene when Billy asks Dane to drive him out of Michigan down South to Monkey’s Eyebrow to find his dad. Doing this would affect Dane because he is on the verge of getting …show more content…
Two things that I liked about this eye-opening novel is that it involved a possible real life situation that might have occurred to someone. For example, the only reason why Billy D. wanted to be friends with Dane was because since he had Down Syndrome, he noticed Dane walking down the street and asked for his help. This type of situation occurs daily with kids asking people who are greater than them in size but this novel instead includes a special education kid instead of an ordinary which is great. What I also like about this book is that it tempts the reader to continue read this book. When the warden offered Dane a deal that if he helps Billy, his record would get expunged however if not, Dane would automatically get suspended from his high school. This tempts the reader to continue to read on in case Dane does not do what Billy wishes. Two things that I did not like about the book was first, the author kept the pace of the book fast and swift. While reading the book, I noticed that the author transitioned through each scene quickly and in result of that, some of the minor character’s personality could not be made out because they weren’t involved in the story for a specific amount of time. For example, when Seely; one of the minor characters was introduced to the novel, it was a bit difficult to figure out what kind of person Seely is like because the author did
For the realistic fiction unit, I read the book Dead Ends written by Erin Jade Lange.
In the novel, the realistic setting takes place in Columbia, Michigan. The novel focuses on two teenagers: Dane Washington and Billy Drum who has Down Syndrome. Dane Washington is a high school student who gets detention almost every day and is on the verge of getting suspended. However, one day when Dane is on his way to school, Billy D joins him and asks for his protection so he wouldn’t be bullied. At first, Dane rejects him because he isn’t interested in helping him but when Dane about to get suspended from school, the warden hears from Billy that Dane will be helping him and offers Dane a chance to redeem himself by helping Billy. With …show more content…
The author writes, “I can’t skip school, Billy D. I’m one detention away from getting expelled... You know what happens if I get kicked out of school?’ I yelled at his back as I chased him down the steps. ‘That’s it! I don’t get to come back in a week. It’s over. I’m out! Is that what you want… Yeah, fine. Fine!’ I shouted, dragging him back toward my house. ‘I’ll go with you, okay?’ I must be out of my mind” (234-236). In this quote, the author uses suspense as a craft move because it is discovered that if Dane receives one more detention, he will officially be suspended from school and that would be determined to Billy whether or not he chooses to support and turn against Dane. Suspense is represented in this key scene when Billy asks Dane to drive him out of Michigan down South to Monkey’s Eyebrow to find his dad. Doing this would affect Dane because he is on the verge of getting …show more content…
Two things that I liked about this eye-opening novel is that it involved a possible real life situation that might have occurred to someone. For example, the only reason why Billy D. wanted to be friends with Dane was because since he had Down Syndrome, he noticed Dane walking down the street and asked for his help. This type of situation occurs daily with kids asking people who are greater than them in size but this novel instead includes a special education kid instead of an ordinary which is great. What I also like about this book is that it tempts the reader to continue read this book. When the warden offered Dane a deal that if he helps Billy, his record would get expunged however if not, Dane would automatically get suspended from his high school. This tempts the reader to continue to read on in case Dane does not do what Billy wishes. Two things that I did not like about the book was first, the author kept the pace of the book fast and swift. While reading the book, I noticed that the author transitioned through each scene quickly and in result of that, some of the minor character’s personality could not be made out because they weren’t involved in the story for a specific amount of time. For example, when Seely; one of the minor characters was introduced to the novel, it was a bit difficult to figure out what kind of person Seely is like because the author did