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Back to Personal Page Eddie Rodriguez YA Lit Dr. Sherry Intertextual: True Notebooks While reading //True Notebooks// by Mark Salzman I was able to find it highly comparable to some other recent young adult texts. This is a nonfictional story of a teacher going through a remarkable transformation as he assisted troubled teens that have been or will be convicted of horrific crimes. The teens are labeled and judged but yet Mark is able to bring the light out of their dark circumstances. The texts that come to mind to compare this to would be: //Freedom Writers// by Erin Gruwell and //Monster// by Walter Dean Myers. These are all similar and different but all are equally useful to inspect. With //True Notebooks// it was completely from the teacher’s perspective and the story started with his indecision of starting teaching at the juvenile hall. This would be a completely realistic thought process for anyone that would be thinking of teaching in a dangerous situation. This would be directly related to Ms. Gruwell’s decision with teaching in her area as well. As for Steve in //Monster// it was focused solely on the teen’s view. These teachers and Steve have to deal with the constant struggle to get past negative stereotypes. In no situation is this easy if one doesn’t think of their own prejudices. With the author’s showing the more humanistic side to the characters that are labeled as “violent” they could lead one into some negative thoughts but then bashes them down as the stories progress. The authors all portray the troubled teens as kind, compassionate, and good overall people that were just placed in harmful situations. The only things the teachers don’t have control over are the situation the students are currently in (pre-crime vs. post crime). The way this book shows these kids is as good people that have already been caught abusing their freedom on the “outs.” So we see as readers that Mark has no chance at giving them freedom so they are going to participate in the class due to their lack of freedom in the center. Using journals was their way “out” and a way to let some feelings finally out. But for Ms. Gruwell, the students lived in a bad area and all are different. Not all are in trouble yet but she had to give some motivation to her class to do better for themselves. She was given the chance to help prevent further misbehavior in society. Meanwhile Steve in //Monster// is also in trouble and on trial for a crime and he uses creating a movie as an escape from the harsh reality in the judicial system. All three books show the court system as unfair, either through the characters eyes or from the events that happen. But this could be a great way to lead into lessons about how the courts work and if our system is fair or biased to certain people. We see what these characters think and how they act towards certain things and it is obvious that they are very relatable to average teens. For students reading this in a classroom, these books could be far more entertaining to read due to character emotions and thoughts are closer to what they would find funny, sad, cruel, and so on. Having the ability to look into all the student journals or views from a movie can really show how being immature and growing up is all relevant to them and the characters. They all have good days and they also have their bad days and nothing is set in black and white. That’s a huge part for realism and creating interest. The world is not a perfect place and none of these books portray it that way. In fact they all show that being naïve about the world is possibly a greater negative in the long run and with expectations. But in a classroom, whether in a public school or in a juvenile facility, it would be very useful to bring up the point of how all these characters used writing and their imaginations to help them make it by in life. Showing students that imagination is a powerful and useful tool is a great objective that will help them better their lives. Everyone needs an outlet and writing journals or making your life into a movie are excellent ways to vent and see yourself grow and that’s something all the authors portrayed quite nicely; the growth of all characters. It was not just physical growth, but they grew as people and finally got past stereotypes and their bad environments. And I really enjoyed how the books don’t really come to happy endings except for maybe //Freedom Writers,// because it reveals how life is unfair but that one has to be prepared for whatever comes your way. It is not about what is around you but about how you handle yourself with everything. I feel like that message is a huge part of what makes these books works for young adults. Young adult literature needs to have messages about life and/or growing up and these authors did it very nicely.