My Reading Life

     Hi, my name is Mohammed Islam and I am an eighth grader at William Alexander Middle School 51. During my time at this school, my reading taste has changed a lot since I first entered this school. Before I came into this school, I was not a big fan of reading, and when I would read, I would read books like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, or other books that don't really educate me more, and never left me thinking. However, when I entered the sixth grade, I realized the kids around me would challenge themselves with more "intellectual" books. I wanted to challenge myself as well, therefore I decided to start reading a lot more books. Some of the books I started to read to challenge myself were It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Hurricane Song, two books that left me thinking about the two issues the books were talking about,(which were depression and relationships with parents). Over the summer of 2014, when I was heading into seventh grade, I read books like Rules, and started to read the Hunger Games series. When I was in seventh grade I read books mostly about social issues that teens face. Some of the books included Reality Boy, A Knife Through Memory, and The Fault in our Stars, Also, I read some books dealing with the Holocaust and World War 2, like Night and Between Shades of Gray. Also, I read one of the most challenging books I have read in all of my reading life, The Time Machine, which is a science fiction novel which is talking about the "future". Over this summer, when heading into eighth grade, I really wanted to challenge myself, so I decided to try and read a young adult book.
     The first book I read over the summer was from the summer reading list given by the school, which is called Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which is a book that I thought was all over the place. It talks about a Latin-American girl who goes through a change in her body, and because of that is threatened to get hurt by a girl she doesn't even know. Also, the girl, whose name is Piddy, is discovering more about her father, who left her before birth. The other book I read over the summer is To Kill a Mocking Bird, which was a recommendation from my sister, who said the book was really good. This book I found really interesting because the book is trying to bring out the idea of how there is just good people, and bad people in the world. Also this book made me think about the justice system, and how it may be biased because of race, or social status. Over the summer, I could't read that much, but when I could, I would really try to think deeply about the books I read. I am excited to see how my reading experiences may change over this year, and I am hoping to challenge myself with more books.