Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

In Jordan Sonnenblick's "Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie" we follow a protagonist named Steven. He tries to cope with his normal middle school life, homework, girls, and drums. When he finds out that his brother Jeffery has cancer, he learns to deal with his brothers illness and challenges in school. At the end or Stevens eighth grade year, we see that he has matured through the sacrifices he willingly makes.
Steven shows the reader he has matured when he shaves his head. Steven was a very selfcontious person so it was very surprising when he did it regardless of how it made him feel about himself. Jeffery had been feeling bad about becoming bald and felt like he was the only one with no hair. Steven did it so that Jeffery wouldn't feel like he was alone. Steven was willing to make sacrifices for his brothers good and not think about how it made him feel.
The protagonist showed a lot of maturity when he left his All City Jazz Band concert to take Jeffery to the hospital. Steven had practiced all year and even had a solo. But when Jeffery had a fever Steven knew he needed medical attention as soon as possible. He thought about what Samantha, a friend he met at the hospital, had said about him staying by his brothers side. He dropped everything to care for his brother. Steven made sacrifices for his brother even though it meant him getting his moment of fame taken away from him.
When Steven didn't let Renee Albert into his house because he knew her being sick wouldn't be good for Jeffery, the reader saw him mature. Steven had liked Renee since the third grade and any boy would die to have her come to their house. Renee was going to teach him the math he hadn't understood and help him pass his math test. But because Renee had the flu Steven knew it would be a great threat to Jeffery. Any viruses in the house would make him extremely sick. So he turned her down even though it meant that he would fail math.
All in all, Jeffery went from being a boy who only thought about himself and how people saw him. To a man who thought about others and how certain decisions would affect them. He matured from beginning to end by doing things for others. Even though its probably not as serious, we all know what it feels like to have to juggle school work and something important in your life. But not everyone becomes stronger after it. That's why Steven is such a remarkable character.

Memoir

     Sequins. All I could think about was sequins. And jazzhands, and the stage, and all the people staring at me. But most of a the only thing I could hear was my mom. No matter what you gonna be great sweetie. Just do your best, okay? There’s no reason to be nervous. I just nodded and put on a smile just like I was gonna have to do on stage.

Still, how could she say that to a six year old who had never had a dance recital before? How could she look at my sad little face and tell me that everything was going to be fine? But I guess it was much better than just saying nothing at all. It was much better than telling me I was going to remember this day as the most embarrassing day of my life.

I felt the sweat rolling down the side of my hairline. I peered out from the back of the curtain and watched as people filed into their seats. Why can’t I be sitting there in the audience? Hidden in the dark. Watching all the action. Getting to look onto the stage and watch other people humiliate themselves. Safe.

I got a glimpse of my family. Anticipating me walking on stage and doing everything perfectly. Everything just right. But no! What if I slipped and broke my neck? Or maybe even fell off stage and died. All because of a stupid two minute tap dance.

Fast. I herd the the pumping of my heart. I inhaled a gust of hairspray and coughed. Ribbing the dry dust bunnies out of my eyelids and smudging the thick, pasty eyeliner I had on. The old stage lights flickered on. The loud buzzing in the audience stopped. I listened to my heavy breath and felt my shaking body. I checked the safety pins holding up my costume hoping they’d stay on the whole time. The music blasted on and I somehow pushed myself on stage. 

And just like that I was beaming. Literally beaming. So happy. It seemed impossible but as soon as I began the cheesy, toddler dance all the things I had been worried about slipped my mind. I caught my mothers eye and she winked. My dad was smiling and my little sister was staring straight at me. I kept going. Flinging myself around the stage listening to the music. Time flew past and with every move I got more excited. I wanted to keep going and never stop. When I was done the music stopped and the stage went black. I smiled, knowing that this wasn’t the last time I’d be doing this.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

The book "Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zarvin is a different and intriguing story. The main character, a girl named Elizabeth, who dies in a bike accident and finds herself in a parallel universe where everyone that dies ages backwards until the become babies and then start another life on earth. Elizabeth is completely distraught by the whole thing and misses her whole life. She realizes how perfect it was. Through this the reader can finds that you don't know what you have until its gone.
Liz misses things she had never even cared about before she died. She missed her younger annoying brother, her homework, and even her teachers. But most of all she's misses having obstacles to overcome in life. Everything in elsewhere is perfect so know one ever has to work hard for anything. Even the things that none of us want to do at all.
All in all this book makes you realize that all the things in life that you hate to do make your life interesting. And all the obstacles you have to over come help you learn new things. When we have no problems and everything is perfect then we are almost not even human.

Finding Themes in Books

Some books that I pick up are easy to understand. It's easy to tell what the author wants you to get from the book and they make that really clear. But some authors make you have to think more about what the theme of the book is. They want you to think about everything and try to put the puzzle of the book together. They might also not make the theme so general but more of something that you can interpret all on you own.

The book "Backwater" by. Joan Bauder was a great book. It was easy to get the plot and the writing was amazing. Still, it was extremely difficult to find a ongoing theme. But the book "Life of Pi" by Yann Patel was a harder read and difficult writing. But the theme of the book was so easy to grasp and really understand. For me, even if the book is easy to read doesn't mean it's easy to find the theme.

Overall every author has something that they want to convey to the reader. They all have themes that have a great meaning. It's their choice if they want to make it hard to grasp or extremely obvious. Sometimes it probably depends on the book that the author is writing. But mainly I think it's just their choice.

Backwater by Joan Bauder

     This different and cute book by Joan Bauder followed a teenage girl named Ivy Breedlove who loved history and didn't want to become a lawyer like everyone else in her family. On a christmas break she decided to travel up a mountain to find her aunt to learn about her families history. But instead she learnt about herself and realized that she could accomplish a lot more than what she thought. This is important because it teaches the reader that not everything is as important as it seems and some things compared to others are nothing. When Ivy realized that she was able to do many things.

    She was able to tell her dad that she really didn't want to go to law school but instead be a historian. This was something she wanted to tell him forever but never had enough courage to say it to his face until she realized what she was capable of. She was also able to turn in her long paper that she wrote on the history of her family and read it aloud. She was petrified of even letting one of other soul reader it before she when it the mountains to spend time with her aunt.

     All in all Ivy was able to do so much when she realized that the things she thought were important really weren't when she faced actual problems. I think that a lot of people can relate to that because everyone has had at least one thing that was a bigger deal than anything else. That's why this book was so good. I recommend it to anyone that can stand a really slow beginning and wait for a great ending to a book.