Reader's Journal-       

Non-Fiction

#13                                                     Reader’s Journal                                           11/21/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

 I have just finished 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 middle of the book (kindle) “I tried to count how many BBs Indy had been shot with, but there were too many to count. Blood was pouring out of what seemed like every part of his body. Indy looked up at me as if to say, “I’m sorry!” I held his head gingerly and sobbed. I don’t know how long I sat there holding Indy in my arms, but when my tears finally stopped for a second and I could see clearly, Indy had died in my arms. I felt a rage like I had never felt before in my life. Sure, I had gotten angry over the years after a night of beatings, but this was different. And mom, standing in the kitchen humming like she’d just had the best day ever, was too much to bear. 

I chose this quote because it really broke my heart. I never thought how someone like the mom could be so careless about something. Sarah finally had a best friend (being the goat), and the mom had to kill and torture it, just because it was the only thing that brought Sarah joy. Also, this happened right after she moved houses, and changed schools. This incident was probably what made Sarah feel as if she had nothing left. This passage is significant to the book because it is the start of the books climax, now that Sarah has nothing, and lives in the middle of nowhere, where no one could hear her if she screamed, and she didn’t have a friend, even if it was an animal to talk to and be with when she was lonely.

I used various strategies before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading, I read my past readers journal, to see where I left off and what literary element I still need to find. Also, I skim and scanned the book for how much I had left to read. While reading, I tried to point out the literary elements that have changed, since I have last wrote my readers journal. All the literary elements turned out to stay the same. Also, I created mental images throughout events in the book so that I had a great visualization of what I was reading. Clearly, since the author was so vivid and explanatory, my metal images were made quick and clear. After reading, I wrote my readers journal on all the information I kept track of. Also, I compare and contrasted this book to other books I read that was about child abuse.

Since all the literary elements stayed the same since I last read, the topic 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. One cause and effect the book has was on Sarah and her mom. Since Sarah's mother called her names because she had some problems, it would affect 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 called “A Child Called It” and “The Lost Boy”. All these books are similar to each other because they are all focused on child abuse, they are both memoirs and all victims are abused by their mother, at a young age.

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.

There weren’t so many text features in this book, but 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.

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 or any other figurative language… my tone during the book was inspired and shocked and my mood was to be scared, have hate and to be attached. Finally, the only way I checked the validity and accuracy of the book was by using my background knowledge on childhood abuse events and other books; there wasn’t another strategy I could use to check it with.

         

Since this book was considered to be “just right” for me, I only found a few new vocabulary words. I used context clues like inferring (context clue #5 for all of them, but 1) to try and find their meanings. One word I learned was “bristle” which means to react angrily. I found this meaning by simply reading the sentence; (“The comment mom had made about my father made me bristle.”) Also, “stark” means to be complete. This is because when the book described her mother’s room, I noticed it was very complete.  “Inevitable” on the other hand, was taught to me by using context clue #1, which means the text gave me the definition. The definition it provided was that it means you couldn’t live without something. Also, the word: “inquisitively”, meaning to be curious. Finally, “Tirade” means a long talk of criticism.

In addition, I was able to make the same connections as I did before! 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, this book was absolutely incredible! I really recommend it to anyone because it was honestly a fast and easy read, just because you can never detach from this book. I definitely rate it a ten out of ten! People who have are being child abused or people who have abused a child should really read this book because it would surely teach them a lesson!

Love,

 Joelle Ben-Nissan