In the book Just Listen by Sarah Dessen the main character, Annabel. Annabel seems to be dealing with an external and internal conflict. Her best friend just stopped talking to her after about 6 years. And her sister had an extreme eating disorder. On the inside Annabel is dealing with what happened the night her and her best friend, Sophie, stopped being friends. Annabel has so much going on in her life she can't even admit that she was raped.
    "But Whitney didn't eat. Not that night, which she slept straight through, not stirring each time my mother came in with a tray." When Annabel says this I can imagine her being worried. I would be worried if someone I knew wasn't eating. I mean who wouldn't? Annabel must feel trapped. Like her family would be disappointed in her if she told them if she was raped. So she has to hold back her emotions. So that she doesn't make her family more broken then it already is.
     Annabel has so much going on that she can't come clean about what happened the night when she stopped being friends with Sophie, that she was raped. I can't relate to this at all. None of this has ever happened to me or a friend. Which is a good thing. But there is people who one of these things has happened to them. I don't know how they would react but it is a big deal. And people should not keep that big a secret from family.

The Road Trip of a lifetime

    In the book How to be Bad by Lauren Myracle, Sarah Mylnowski, and E. Lockhart one character, Vicks learns how to open up and except her feelings. In the beginning she seems all bottled up and thinks it's bad and weird to show how a person feels. She thinks that people who show how they feel are needy. At the end of the story she learns that its okay to tell someone how you honestly feel about them or about something. Vicks is a person who is very protective of her feelings.
    Vicks has a boyfriend who is at college and suddenly stops contacting her. She gets a text once in awhile but thats it. Vicks says that she doesn't care but deep down she really does. When she says "I know she's sad that I didn't tell her right off about what's been going on with Brady since he left for the U." I think that Vicks doesn't want to be judged by the way she is feeling. With everything going on she thinks that if she asked for help then she would sound needy. And she would hate that. It's so personal to her she can't even tell her own best friend. At the end of the book she says "Yeah, but what I mean is, why didn't you call me at all, ever, since you left home?" In this scene Vicks finally opens up to Brady, her boyfriend. It seems that she feels relieved that she is getting all of this out. She learned during the road trip that its okay to except your feelings. Every person has feelings and it's okay to show them once in awhile.
  Vicks has a problem representing her feelings but at the end she leads that she can trust others with her feelings. This change teaches me about life because I think it teaches a person that it's fine to have feelings.That it's okay to show a persons feelings. But it also teaches me that a person doesn't need to know everything that is going on in their life. That a person shouldn't push them to tell them what's going on.

Is learning how to ride a bike nessessary for a child?

  In the book Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen the main character Auden had no childhood a "normal" child would have. She never played with toys hung out with friends or even learned how to ride a bike. And you would think that every child knows how to ride a bike. Auden spent her childhood workin, studying, doing homework to impress her parents. Auden trys to impress her parents throughout the book.
 One reason I think this is because her mom is never paying attention to her. She's always studying and talking about grades in front of her mom. But her mom never really praises her. At least you never see that in the book. And the only reason Auden did not have a "normal" childhood was because she was trying to get her mom's attention by doing amazing in school. A regular parent what be congraulating their child. But her mom is just so up in her own world she can't even notice that her daughter gave up on her chlidhood just to have some affection from her mom.
  My parents have always congratulated me from doing well in school. I don't think a child should try to impress their parents. It's wrong. The parents should realize they have a kid and notice them and not be so worried with work or something else that their kid feels left out of their parent-child relationship.