Reader's Journal Non-Fiction

#1                                                 Reader’s Journal                                      8/29/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            This week I finished reading THE LOST BOY by Dave Pelzer. The author wrote this book as a memoir. A memoir is a type of genre that is written about a specific memory or event in that person’s life. In this case, Dave Pelzer wrote about the horrific memories of his abusive life from ages twelve to eighteen, unlike his other book, which is written in the point of view from the ages four to twelve. Because I love reading “A Child Called It” so much, I started this book, which is the continuation of what happens after age twelve.

            A quote out of the many that sparked my interest was located on page one. “Winter 1970, Daly City, California- I’m alone. I’m shivering in the dark. I sit on top of my hands at the bottom of the stairs in the garage. My head is titled backward. My hands became numb hours ago. My neck and shoulder muscles begin to throb. But that’s nothing new- I’ve learned to turn off the pain. I’m mother’s prisoner. I am nine years old and I’ve been living like this for years. Every day it’s the same thing. I wake up from sleeping on an old army cot in the garage, perform the morning chores, and if I’m lucky, eat left over breakfast cereal from my brothers. I run to school, steal food, return to “The House” and am forced to throw up in the toilet bowl to prove that I didn’t commit the crime of stealing any food.” I chose this quote because it shows how so many years pasted since the book “ A Child Called It” and by the first page, I can already notice how nothings changed. He has dreams about escaping and leaving “the House” so that he will no longer be considered as an outcast of the family, with practically no home. Also, the significance of this quote to the book is that Dave was really strong and brave as a child and this personality should be an example to everyone, as they experience their hard times. This quote also taught me to never give up and to follow your dreams.

            I used various strategies before, during and after reading this book. Before reading, I thought about all the information I learned on Dave’s previous book to help me continue where I left off, allowing me to understand the subjects, people, and events in the book. Also, I skim and scanned for any text features so that I can comprehend the text. While reading, I wrote and kept track of writing important information on my sticky notes, in order to do my readers journal. Also, I created mental images in my head during some parts of the book so that I had a great visualization to what I was reading. After reading, I compare and contrasted this book to A Child Called It. Also, I gathered information about all the literary elements in my mind to complete my reader’s journal and better understand the book.

            The topic of this book is child abuse and the main idea is a foster child’s search for the love of a family. This main idea is stated because it is clearly said on the front cover of the book and it is not needed to be read, in order to understand what the book is mainly about. Another title I would give this book is “The Lost Wonders of Finding a Loving Family”. I would give it this title because I think it really would get others attentions. Also, I think it would start the book off with a good main idea so that the reader could better understand what they’re going to read. Three supporting details I found that support the main idea are that Dave (David, in the book) dreams about having a new family on a daily basis. He just wants to be loved by someone and have a friend. Also, there is a time in the book where David just runs away hoping to leave and live a new life. Finally, even though this book talks about finding a loving family, the topic is also child abuse because of the horrific events the mother created for him. Another supporting detail is that he states that he is beaten and abused by her on a daily basis.

            The essential message I earned from the book is to appreciate what you have and to be thankful to have parents that take care of you and love you. The cause and effect of this book is that the mother’s horrendous behavior, lead Father to have an argument with mother to treat David with better respect, which effected her to finally just kick him out of the house. When I think of compare and contrasting the mother and the father, there are endless differences. For example, the difference between the mother and the father is that father has more respect for David, while the mother does not. Even though there are not many similarities among them, one similarity they have is that they’re both David’s parents and both have control over David’s actions. In my opinion, father has a much sweeter and understanding personality.

            I was able to identify five different text features in the article, and their impact on the text. The heading gave the reader a hint to the topic, while the subtitles explained the main ideas. The table of contents helped me locate chapters in the book, while seeing their title and how long each chapter is. Finally, Italicized and bold words helped track down important and useful lines in the text. The pattern of organization is chronological order. Chronological order is a way the book is written, making it the order in which the events or ideas occur, from first to last. The author’s purpose is to share personal experiences with the reader. The author’s perspective is subjective and biased about child abuse. He believes “it is everything” to be loved and included in a family and in the making of friends. The point of view is written in first person because the author is talking to the reader from his perspective, using the words I, me, my etc.

              Some descriptive and figurative language I was able to analyze was a metaphor; “I never thought of the saying that love is a jewel.”  This line is considered a metaphor because it compares two different things with out using the words like or as. In order to understand the validity and accuracy, I used my prior knowledge on child abuse and what I learned about David’s situation in his previous book that I have already read.

            While reading, I was able to identify five new vocabulary words. For example, the meaning of the word infuriated is to make someone extremely mad. I was able to sense the definition by using context clue number five. Also, by using context clue number five I was able to notice that the word bourbon means to have a rich like scent. The word remorse, also found by context clue number five means to regret. Finally the words sloshed, meaning to be drunk and the word clutching, meaning to grasp are both found by context clue number four.

            While reading, I was able to make many connections. For example a text-to-self connection I was able to make with the book was the similarities in David and my personality. Even though David is much more daring and brave then I am, our personalities can relate with strong and smartness. Another connection I was able to make was a text-to-text connection. I can relate this book to the book A Child Called It in many ways. It has the same characters, events, topic and basically the summary of the entire book! It was almost like I read the book twice! The last connection I made was to the world. I can relate this book to the world because many other children and people might also be set in David’s position and can deal with it or thinks about it in similar ways as David did.

            All in all, this was a stunning book! I loved every page and paragraph of it! I really felt as if I were an actual character in the book with the help of vivid and descriptive adjectives the author included. I definitely rate it a ten out of ten and recommend it to everyone who has sympathy and inspiration for other people’s stories!

            Love always,

                   Joelle Ben-Nissan