This book made me pretty sad at one point. I didn't really consider everybody else that was affected by the attack and what they were feeling. The story focuses just on Marcus which kind of dehumanizes and takes away the magnitude of the tragedy. Up until now we haven't really heard from anybody else about who they lost in the attack or how they took it. A quote that struck me was this, "Mr Glover told his story next. He didn't have anything to say about what had happened, but he explained that he was a veteran and that his son was a good kid. He talked about what it felt like to believe that his son had died, about how his exwife had had a collapse when she found out and ended up in a hospital. He cried a little, unashamed, the tears streaming down his lined face and darkening the collar of his dressuniform".

Mr. Glover sounds like a pretty legit guy, a veteran of some war, and he just breaks down in tears as he's telling his story. I pictured this solidly built guy, probably 6 foot 3 inches, crew cut, with a stern face. And I just can't see him breaking down, thinking about everything that must have happened and how stressful this must have been makes me sad. I don't want something like this to ever happen to me or anybody that I know.

Like I said, this hasn't happened to me on such a large scale and I wouldn't wish that on anybody I know. That would completely break me down and I would probably be depressed for a really long time. My dog Buddy died when I was young and I had him for all of my life and I was so sad when he died. I remember denying that he was really gone and thinking that in the morning he would be there wagging his tail waiting for breakfast to come. I'm over it now but it was a pretty sad part of my life that I don't want to go through again.

One thing that I thought was shocking is that this one lady is telling Marcus and his classmates that it's ok to suspend the Bill of Rights... those are supposed to be our UNALIENABLE rights. We are always supposed to be protected by those no matter what, and this Charles kid that gives this lady ideas of when they should be taken away is really pissing me off. He should be supporting his rights not siding with the government on such a crazy idea as losing those rights.

I don't get why the government sent this lady to talk to them about it either. I guess they're trying to justify what they're going to do or have already done but kids can be very vulnerable when it comes to their rights and what they can and can't do. Like if you tell a little kid that he can't hit people he knows he shouldn't hit people, but if you tell that kid to not eat cereal, the kid might think that's wrong too even though there is nothing wrong with that. People might think that it's ok for the government to take those rights away, which it isn't.

This has never happened to me and I don't think that ever will, hopefully. I just can't imagine a situation where the government would ever have to do that. If that did happen I would be so angry, that is just not ok to do. The government has no right to do that to its people and it really shouldn't have to. There shouldn't be a time when the people are suspected so much as to where the government has to take away rights in order to find potential terrorists or whatever.

Little Brother is a good book but I can't tell where the plot is going, it seems like Doctorow is just going on and on about how Marcus and his friends are screwing with the system and that they're not going to take down the DHS. I can only read like 20 or 30 pages in a row now because I can't see it going anywhere anytime soon, I hope it does but I don't want to wait too long. I think it sucks that the DHS is stepping up security even more, that really isn't even going to help anything, it's just going to cause more chaos and prove that the DHS doesn't know what it's doing.

A quote that I thought was good was this, "Then one cop stood up and started shouting EVERYONE JUST GO HOME JESUS CHRIST WE'VE GOT BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN BOTHER YOU WITH MORE QUESTIONS IF YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING WRONG JUST DON'T DO IT AGAIN AND LET THIS BE A WARNING TO YOU ALL." I think it just goes to show that even the cops are getting stressed out about this situation, I mean who wouldn't? They're questioning just about everybody in San Francisco which is really going to piss some people off.

I would hate for this to ever happen in my lifetime, I would not be able to deal with the constant accusations of being a terrorist or whatever. I would just get sick of it, the government should not have to do that in order to keep control of its people. It's great that they're trying to catch the terrorists but they're putting way too much money and manpower into it, try to be more precise and not just send a billion cops to try and find one or two terrorists.

Little Brother is really starting to get confusing, there's a lot of computer mumbo jumbo that I can't really follow. They're talking about arphid cloners and Xnet stuff that I really don't understand, other than that it's a really good book. Lots of complex stuff going on like Marcus is going to try to bring down the Department of Homeland Security which is pretty crazy. I mean, kids my age are going to bring down the government by themselves without any help from adults, that's awesome.

A part that kind of freaked me out is the concept of police pulling over so many people for no real reason. I can't imagine something like that ever happening, it's just too outlandish to even consider. I would be so paranoid if something like that happened, I would be afraid to go outside for fear of being pulled over and taken to jail. Crazy things going on in that book, I hope that Marcus takes down the DHS.

This doesn't really relate to anything that has ever happened to me in my life, thank goodness. The closest thing that's happened is when police were driving around a Holiday Inn at a soccer tournament we were at and a friend of mine got taken in by them. It was actually really funny because it was the last person we would have thought would ever be in a cop car. Hilarious, everybody else got away but him, he was freaked out too, good times, good times.

This such a great book, just the way that it is formatted and how everything is explained makes me not want to put it down. It really makes me think too, I've been starting to wonder if this would ever actually happen where the government would get way out of hand and spy on everybody all the time. It kind of freaks me out thinking about it. A quote that I thought was pretty incredible is this, ""The security," he said, looking around his little shop with its
tubs of dried beans and seeds, its shelves of Turkish groceries. "The government. They monitor it all now, it was in the papers. PATRIOT Act II, the Congress passed it yesterday. Now they can
monitor every time you use your card. I say no. I say my shop will not help them spy on my customers."".

This really struck me as odd, I mean, a huge terrorist attack just happened just a few blocks away from this guy's store and he's mad at the government for tightening security and spying on people. I respect this guy for that, he seems like a legit guy that believes in freedom for everyone and will do his best to make sure everybody gets it. I'm just surprised at how quickly this guy made up his mind that he was going to help out the citizens after such a catastrophe.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me really but I hope it does. I want to know that I'm doing what's best for the people that I interact with and that I'm not just leaving them up to dry for the government to look at where they've been and such. I don't think it will ever get as extreme as that but you never know. Again, it's a terrific book and I'm looking forward to figuring out what Marcus is going to do about it.

I really really like this book! It has a really good plot and it makes me wonder what's going to happen next so I don't want to stop reading it. Not gonna lie, it's a little confusing with the computer techie stuff but I understand most of it. It kind of makes me mad how the DHS people suspect Marcus and his friends, they're just a bunch of kids, what are they gonna do? A quote that made me think was this, "Hell, maybe my room was wiretapped. Maybe there was a
camera spying on me now" I'm not sure what page this is because i got it off the online thing and it didn't have page numbers.

I thought this was pretty creepy, the thought that someone had been in my room and messed with my stuff would scare the crap out of me! I wouldn't feel safe in my own room, I would be so paranoid too, I mean, my whole room could be bugged and someone could be watching me all the time....that would not be cool.

This is like when i believed in the boogeyman, I know it's kinda lame but I was young so I didn't know any better. I thought that he was in my closet so it would take me forever to fall asleep cause I thought that if I did he would come out and get me. It was terrifying! But I'm over that now so it's cool, that quote just made me think about how terrible it must be to not know if you're safe in your room.

So far, I really like Little Brother, it's a really interesting book that is completely different than anything I've ever read before. The layout is like a narrative but it's like you're actually in Marcus's head and you can see what he's thinking and everything in his own words. I don't really understand the plot yet but I think I'll get it later in the book once they explain what's going on with the terrorist attack and why Marcus has to stay with the Department of Homeland Security people. A quote that I thought was interesting was this, "A flicker of annoyance passed over her face, then went away. "So melodramatic, Marcus. No one's attacked you. You've been detained by your country's government while we seek details on the worst terrorist
attack ever perpetrated on our nation's soil. You have it within your power
to help us fight this war on our nation's enemies. You want to preserve the
Bill of Rights? Help us stop bad people from blowing up your city" (62).

I thought this was really interesting because this lady is saying that nobody has attacked Marcus even though they are being forcefully detained by the Department of Homeland Security, I don't really know what else you could call it besides an attack. They didn't do anything wrong, I guess the DHS people don't know that but they were just some kids standing in the road after the attack, why did they pick them to bring in? Marcus flagged them down because Darryl got stabbed, I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure if they were the ones who had done the attack they wouldn't just be standing in the road waiting for someone to pick them up and arrest them.

This seems like a pretty extreme precaution to take by the DHS people, kidnapping some kids because they were just in a certain place at a certain time not doing anything wrong. That just strikes me as weird, I'm sure there were shadier people in the street at the time, like possibly the guy that stabbed Darryl? Who just walks around and stabs people? That's much more suspicious than just a few kids standing around, I just don't understand the reasoning behind the DHS people's thinking, I'm not too worried about Marcus and the gang though, they're smart, creative, not real people so there isn't a reason to worry at all, and the book would be boring if it ended with them just chilling in the prison the whole time. I'm excited to see what happens next!

I'm reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, it is about a group of teenagers that are whiz kids with computers and use their skills to fool their school's computer system, letting them leave school and mess around. It's in the perspective of a kid named Marcus Yallow, who also goes by w1n5t0n, is the main character and really really good with computers.

One day, him and his friends, Darryl, Vanessa (Van) and Jose Luis (Jolu), sneak past all of the security features of their school and go to try and find a clue for a game, Harajuku Fun Madness, and while they are out, some part of their city gets bombed and they are caught up in a flurry of chaos as people are running to get into shelters and the subway system. They decide to go into a shelter but then think that it would be better to stay above ground. As they are going up, Darryl gets stabbed and they flag down a military vehicle that turns out to not be military and it kidnaps them. They are taken to some sort of interrogation facility and that's how far I've gotten.

I really really like this book! It's cool how the style of writing is kind of informal, I'm not really sure how to explain it but it just seems like it's not really just telling a story but more like how some teenager would explain it. Which I'm guessing is what the author was trying to do. Also, I like how descriptive the author is with explaining all of the gadgets and computer stuff, it adds a little background that makes it easier to follow. I would definitely recommend this book and I've only read about 40 pages so far! It's very hard to put down and if I could, I would read it all day.

Steve is found not guilty! This made me happy that they let him go, I knew that he didn't deserve to go to jail but I was nervous that they would put him away just because of his skin color and situation. This must have been a terrifying ordeal for Steve, I can't imagine what it's like to be put on trial and to know that you could possibly go to jail for the rest of your life if you're found guilty. I noticed that Steve was questioning himself throughout the trial, I felt bad for him because he seemed to feel really bad about the whole situation.

I'm just glad that he got out of it, it must have taken some guts to not just collapse under the pressure of the whole trial and people calling him monster and such. If I was in his situation I would be a mess, I don't handle failure or knowing that I've disappointed someone well. I always feel like I'm a terrible person for doing something that someone thinks is wrong even if I know that I did the right thing. If I was ever put on trial I would be so nervous and I would feel so awful that someone accused me of a crime. I don't even want to think about that.

Steve overcoming the odds that he would be put in prison reminds me of when my soccer team beat the Minneapolis United Jedi which is another soccer team that my team hates. They are a pretty good team but we were just as good as them but we just couldn't beat them, which was really frustrating. But one game at Kuhlman field, we were playing really well and we held them to a tie at the end of the first half which was really good for us. Later in the second half we scored! It was such a good feeling to be beating them, but we knew that there was still plenty of game left to be played and that we would have to have some tenacious defense. At one point, they had a free that they placed into the lower right corner, but our goalie, Austin, made an amazing save that energized our whole team, we went the rest of the game without letting them get a decent shot. We ended up winning one to zero in one of the best games that we had played.

This is a really frustrating book to read, you really feel bad for Steve and the situation that he's in and you want to help him but you can't. The trial still isn't looking good for him and it seems like the jury may convict him, he's trying to get his side of the story out but they aren't listening which is really frustrating. You can tell that the trial is getting to Steve and that it's messing with his head. This is earlier in the book but I was re-reading over it and this part struck me as odd. He's starting to have dreams about the trial, a quote that I thought was interesting is this, "The dream took place in the courtroom. I was trying to ask questions and nobody could hear me. I was shouting and shouting but everyone went about their business as if I wasn't there. I hope I didn't shout out in my sleep. That would look weak to everybody. It's not good to be weak in here" (63-64).

I thought this quote was really interesting because it shows how much of a toll this trial has taken on him. He's having terrible dreams about telling people things and trying to ask them questions but they just go about their business as if he wasn't even there. I think that that is really unfair because if the jury just judges him because he is black, they could put an innocent man behind bars. It just doesn't seem right that people would judge someone on the color of their skin and just assume that they are guilty, I mean, I know that there are stereotypes and people make assumptions right away but if it's such a serious matter as if a person will go to jail, possibly for the rest of his life, people should put those feelings aside and look at the evidence and make decisions from there.

This quote reminds me of something that happened to me, it's not really relevant to the book but I just thought I'd share. I was sleeping one night a really long time ago, like eight years ago maybe and I was having this terrible dream that I was trapped in this wooden cage and I was yelling and yelling but no one heard me. Apparently I had been yelling out in my sleep so my parents ran into my room and woke me up and I had no idea what was going on once I woke up but I was really scared because I thought I was still in the cage. I told my parents about my dream and they sat and comforted me for a little bit and when I felt better I went back to sleep and slept through the rest of the night. I just thought that this was similar to what Steve might be going through and I feel bad that he doesn't have any parents or anything that can comfort him in jail.

I'm starting to think that this trial is kind of unfair towards Steve, I could already tell in the beginning of the book that the jury thought he was guilty but now it seems like he really is innocent but nothing is going his way. They brought in another witness, Osvaldo Cruz, who is a real dirt bag but is acting really afraid and timid for the jury so they want to convict Steve even more. That's a jerk move and I really want to tell the jury what Cruz is really like. A quote that really got me thinking was this, "That was what I was thinking, about what was in my heart and what that made me. I'm just not a bad person. I know that is my heart I am not a bad person" (93).

This really made me feel bad for Steve, he seems like a nice guy that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and nobody believes that. I want to help him out and tell the jury that they would be making a huge mistake if they convicted him of this crime and they would be putting an innocent guy in jail and ruining his life. He really doesn't have much as it is and this would effectively end his life, if not his livelihood, if he were to be put in jail. I'm impressed by the way he's handling himself in this situation, he's still managing to write about everything that's going on in his life in his little diary/movie script thing. If I were in his position right now I wouldn't be able to record anything, I would be too busy worrying about what is going to happen to me.

This reminds of the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar, where Stanley Yelnats is put on trial for "stealing" a pair of shoes that were going to go to the homeless or something like that, when really the shoes were thrown from a highway and landed on him and then the police found him with the shoes and assumed he did it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he had to pay for it by going to Camp Green Lake which turned out really well for him in the end but still. He was wrongly put into this camp because he happened to find the shoes that were stolen, which is really similar to what happened to Steve in Monster. I feel bad for both of them even though I know that everything works out for Stanley, and I'm still waiting to find out what happens to Steve.

So far, Monster, by Walter Dean Myers has been a very good book. I like the way it's formatted, how it portrays the book if it were a movie with all of the effects that would be there written into the text. I also like how the author describes things in the book with the movie script format, it makes the book more fun to read. It also has made me think about many things, one of those is racism, which is expressed in this quote, "'Half of those jurors, no matter what they said when we questioned them when we picked the jury, believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?'" (78-79).

This quote really made me think about racism and how it affects society today. People will judge other people the moment they see them just because of the color of their skin or how they look. This is really wrong and people shouldn't make assumptions about people just becuase of the way they look, you should get to know them before making any judgements about them. It can be hard not to be judgemental at times though, like I'll see how someone acts one day and assume that's how they always are. Maybe they were having a bad day though and they're actually a really good person, I wouldn't know until I got to really know them.

This quote also made me think of all of the terrible things that have happened becuase of racism, namely wars. People will attack and try to kill a certain group of people just because of their religion or how they look, they won't get to know them or anything, they'll just assume. An example of this is the Holocaust. The Nazis didn't even bother to find anything out about the Jews, they just took them from their homes and killed them which was terrible. Granted, Hitler was a very persuasive speaker which could've convinced them to help him but that's still wrong. It makes me feel really bad whenever I think about what happened and why it happened. It's just stupid for something as serious as the Holocaust to happen just because some guy says they're an inferior race, it's unbelieveable. This quote really made me think about the negative impacts racism has had and how bad it is.

The book "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers is a narrative on the life of Steve Harmon, who is caught up in a murder. He is being tried in court and has to fight to prove his innocence. The book is full of his emotions at being put through this and it shows by how the book is written and the quotes that are contained in it. A quote that really made me think was, "Ain't no use putting the blanket over your head, man. You can't cut this out; this is reality. This is the real deal" (7).

This quote really made me think because it's kind of a rude awakening for Steve, I mean, someone is blatantly telling him that this isn't going to go away and that this is his life now. I felt really bad for him because he has to face this trial pretty much by himself, it doesn't say anything about any family members from what I've read so I assume it's pretty much just him and his defending attorney. He must feel so alone right now, he doesn't really have anyone to talk to that he can tell his feelings to. This just made me think of how lucky I am to have a supportive family that will take care of me.

This relates to my life because there are some times where it seems like nothing is going my way and I get really sad. The difference is that I have the support I need that can help me get through these times where as it appears that Steve doesn't have a support system that can help him. Also, I've never been accused of doing anything as serious as murder and I hope that I never find myself in that situation. I can put myself in his shoes and feel what it's like to be lonely and feel like nothing is going right in my life but I can just think that it will be over soon and I can get on with my life.

This quote really hit me, I wanted to help Steve out but I know that he's not real so there is nothing that I could do. It made me think about my life and how lucky I am to be in such a good situation and I have a new appreciation for the little things in life that make it enjoyable. In conclusion, this quote really made me look at life in a new way and made me more grateful about my life right now.

Night

"You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!" (pg. 31)

This quote is really an awakening for the author, they just arrived at the camp and now they find out that they will probably meet their end by being burned in a giant oven. This is just a terrible thing to go through and it must have taken a lot of strength to still keep their hope up after this initial shock. I just can't believe that this could ever have happened, the thought is just terrible to think about.