Sierra’s Inventory

Growing up, I struggled with reading and comprehending what I was reading. I took classes outside of school to catch up with the kids in my class. But I was always afraid to read outloud in the classroom, especially when my teacher did popcorn reading. I always felt like everyone in the class picked on me knowing that I was a slow reader. My parents watched me come home from school upset because of how embarrassed I was. That’s when they realized it was time to get me reading all the time. My parents would label everything in my house to help me read. 

To start they bought these books called “The Little Critter’s” by Mercer Mayer and that’s when I started my reading experience, these books were life changing for me. They helped me grow not only as a reader but as a person. They inspired me to never lose hope as a person, not only were they impacting but at the time they were fun to read. There were so many pictures to look at and it helped me open my imagination by placing myself in the situation. Also after my parents and I read a page we would look for the hidden mouse or spider which was fun. One of my favorites was “Just a Bad Day” when I came home from school upset about my reading ability, this book helped me through it all. There will always be bad days and we just have to do whatever we can to make it better. These books have inspired me as a reader to be more personal with my work, I want to inspire others and tackle subjects that are going on in today’s society that people can relate to.

The next inspirational book I read was “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo, this book was read during a time when I started to have middle school drama with my “friends.” I thought this book was inspiring because of the impact a dog had on someone’s life. With Opel being new to the town, she comes across a dog, she names Winn- Dixie. Winn-Dixie didn’t have much, he was a scruffy outdoor dog but helped Opal become more open. In the end Opal learns to let go, just a little, and that friendship and forgiveness can sneak up on you like a sudden summer storm. This book has opened my eyes to forgiveness and new friendships, it’s also helped me grow as a reader because it was something that was more personal for me, I love reading true and personal stories especially if I can relate to them. I look forward to the impact a story can give. 

The next on my list is both “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak and “Number the Stars” by  Lois Lowry. I read these books in school for a class project, after reading both I fell in love. As a reader I knew I loved reading books that I could relate to personally but I loved reading about stories that happened in our world. The Holocaust was an awful event to have ever happened and to read about it, I could never imagine the pain that people went through. It is so fascinating to read about this time because there are so many stories that people want to tell. “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak takes place in a time of the Holocaust, 1939. The main character, Liesel,  life changes when she finds a single object, partially hidden in the snow, it is a Gravedigger’s Handbook, this ends up being her first book thievery. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library. Which makes everything more dangerous since her foster family starts to hide Jews in their basement. Originally I watched the movie “The Book Thief” and it was amazing that I wanted to read the book. As a reader this taught me that I enjoy watching the movies first so that when I read I can see exactly what is happening. “Number the Stars” by  Lois Lowry is a more personal experience from a Jew herself, Annemarie and her best friend Ellen often think of what life was like before the war. At the time it is  1943 and their life in Copenhagen is different  with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching around town. When the Jews of Denmark are “relocated,” Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family members. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save her best friend’s life. 

“The Face on the Milk Carton” by  Caroline B. Cooney was different from the normal books I have read. I started out with books that had personal meaning to books that were dark and mysterious. The Face on the Milk Carton was definitely different for my taste and also left me constantly wondering. This book was about fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson, who didn’t know she was kidnapped until she was staring at the reflection of herself on the milk carton. She felt like it was unreal, that her “parents” would even kidnap. Leading to her investigating into her past, the twisted events that take place change the lives of two families forever. This book inspired me as a reader because not only do I love how twisted it was. Although as a reader I did learn from this book, it felt very long and as if the author did try to extend her work too long.

The Premise of “The face on the milk carton” is what would happen if an adolescent child discovers that they had been abducted as a young child? The controlling idea would be when we pursue the truth, we might destroy what is familiar and comfortable, but we become free in the process. Counter idea: when we live inside a lie, we might remain safe, but our lives are robbed of meaning.