Journal 4: Natalie Young

     My active reading so far is going pretty good. Although I am a pretty slow reader, the highlighting and writing in the margins are making it much easier to retain the information I am reading. The only thing I would say I am struggling with in the reading is time management. I have to make sure i give myself enough time to read what is assigned instead of procrastinating. The example of something I marked reading is "you can never have too much sky.. here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are the flowers and most things that are still beautiful. Still, we take what we can get and make the best of it" (pg 33). I marked it because I feel sometimes there really is not enough sky and too much sadness in life. I think by saying there is not enough sky she means happiness and safety. Everybody longs to be happy, safe, and just to enjoy life.
      Right now i am enjoying A Long Way Gone more than House On Mango St. Although House On Mango St is a good, detailed, and short read, I feel myself being drawn to ALWG more for the simple fact that I've never read anything like this before. I've also never heard much about the children being forced to be soldiers during their civil war so reading a story through the eyes of young child's is something that just catches my eye. A theme I've noticed in this book is hope. To be able to through everything that Ishmael and his friends gone through, you have you believe theres a light to the end of the darkness, you have to have some hope. i think everybody can relate to this because everybody is put through somethings in life that you have no control in sometimes and most of the time you can only make it through the dark days with hope that it will soon be over.