Reader's Journal-       

Non-Fiction

#12                                                     Reader’s Journal                                           11/14/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

 This week, I am currently in the middle of reading the book: Why Me? By Sarah Burleton. The genre of this book is memoir. Memoir is a subgenre of fiction that is written about a true story and a specific memory or event in that person’s life. In this case, Sarah Burleton wrote about the horrific memories of her childhood, when her mother abused her.

A passage I chose out of the many was located in the beginning of the book on the kindle. “Abuse for me was something that happened on a daily basis. It might have been hair-pulling, a punch to the kidneys, a kick down the stairs, or mom’s other favorite activity: name-calling. Over the years I have been called Thunder Thighs, Nigger Lips, Kidney Kate (because I had kidney problems when I was younger), and Anorexic Annie, just to name a few. I’ve been beaten with brooms, whips, extension cords, belts—basically, if it was in arms reach, I was getting hit with it.

I chose this quote because it really opened my heart and made me think of how serious abuse can be. Also, it made me really realize how lucky I was to be part of a family that cares and loves me. Clearly, I really can’t imagine being in her position and I really wouldn’t want to be! This passage is significant to the book because it really shows how actions done to a child can end up changing their life and possibly even ruin it. Sarah wrote this book to share her experiences so that other kids who are abused can relate to her and that’s what this passage shows.

I used various strategies before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading, I thought about all the background knowledge I had on child abuse by other books I’ve read. Also, I skim and scanned for what the book is about, what the genre of the book is, and if the book was “just right” for me. I have decided that this book was “just right” for me. While reading, I wrote and kept track of important information on a sticky note, 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 of what I was reading. Clearly, since the author was so descriptive the mood I had towards her situation was not pleasant. After reading, I compare and contrasted this book to other books about child abuse. Also, I maintained all the information I read so that I can write my readers journal and read the book again the next day.

         

The topic of this article is child abuse and the main idea is childhood abuse that is done both mentally and physically. The main idea is implied because it is not clearly stated in the book. If I had to give this book another title it would be: “My Tragic Memory of Being Child Abused” I would chose this title because it clearly states the topic and main idea. Also, I really think it would bring many readers attention! Three supporting details I found, that are factual and supports the main idea was mainly found in the passage I chose. For example, "Abuse for me was something that happened on a daily basis.” " I’ve been beaten with brooms, whips, extension cords, belts—basically, if it was in arms reach, I was getting hit with it.” And finally, " I known there are abused kids out there, kids who are on the outside may just seem weird or who maybe don't have the best haircut or the best clothes, who are facing the same teasing at school and torture at home that I faced.” The essential message of this story is child abuse can affect a child's life and it should never be done to any person no matter who they are or what problems they have.

 A cause and effect I found is that since Sarah's mother called her names just because she was fat, or had kidney problems would effect Sarah to feel bad about herself and have no self confidence. I can compare and contrast Sarah's abusive childhood with other books I read about the same topic like “A Child Called It” and “The Lost Boy”. All these books are similar because they are all focused on child abuse, they are both memoirs and all victims are abused by their mother.

Even though there weren't so many text features in this book, I was able to identify headings, subheadings, the title, the picture on the front cover, and quotation marks. The headings and subheadings before every chapter make it easier to understand what each chapter was about. The title gave me an understanding of what the book was going to be about. The picture on the front cover was an image of a little girl and it gave me an expectation that the book will be about a child. Finally, the quotation marks gave me a chance to hear what other people said, by their own perspective.

The pattern of organization of this book was chronological order because the author told her experiences and incidents in the order that they occurred. The author’s purpose is to share and to inform. This is because she talks about her personal experiences when she was a child, being abused and tortured, while also, informing the reader throughout the book about why abuse is not acceptable and shouldn’t be done. The author's perspective is subjective and biased against her mother and child abuse because she states her own opinions about how wrong it is to abuse and how awful her mom was, only defending her side of the story. The point of view is written in first person, by Sarah’s perspective because she uses the words “I, me, we, and us” in her writing.

Sadly, I was unable to find any figurative language because the author just wrote her experiences factually and didn’t exaggerate or use any personification and any other figurative language… the only way I checked the validity and accuracy was by using my background knowledge on childhood abuse events and other books; I didn’t know what else I could check it with.

         

While reading, I found only a few new vocabulary words just because the book was “just right” for me. I used context clues like inferring (context clue #5 for all of them) to try and find their meanings. One word I learned was “perm” which means to settle your hair in a way of treating it with chemicals. Also, “ammunition” means considerations that can be used to support someone’s argument.  “Cascade”, meaning something that falls in plentiful quantities. “Excruciating” means to have an extreme pain. And finally the word “glisten” meaning a sparkling light reflected from something wet.

Furthermore, I was able to make many connections while reading! A text-to-self connection I was made with the book was the similarities I had with Sarah and my personality. Even though I did not go through child abuse like Sarah did, our personalities can relate because we would both sacrifice things to help others like Sarah did when she wrote this book! A text-to-text connection I made was relating this book to the book A Child Called and The Lost Boy. This is because all of these books focus on child abuse as a topic. Also, their mother abused the authors in all books and all of these books were classified as a memoir. 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 Sarah’s position in child abuse. Clearly, Sarah wrote this book to inform others that abuse should never be done.

All in all, even though I didn’t finish reading this book yet, it is really good so far and I am looking forward into finishing it! I honestly loved every page and paragraph of this book and I was able to identify all the literary elements only after reading half of the book. I definitely rate it a ten out of ten and recommend it to everyone who has sympathy and inspiration for other people’s stories! Also, people who have or are being child abused and people who have abused a child should read this book.

Love,

Joelle Ben-Nissan