The Drowning of Arthur Braxton

The book, "The Drowning of Arthur Braxton" is about a teenage boy living in London. It incorporates different story lines and by doing this creates a fairytale like setting. Mystical beings, mysterious men, and mean bullies are all characters played out in this story. Its truly a fun experience reading this book.

A major theme shown throughout this book is how young kids make big mistakes. This is extremely relatable for our grade with the stupid decisions we are making in terms of substance and sexual abuse. Everyday on social media we see classmates and many other kids doing these things and it is a very relevant problem. The kid, Arthur, in this book deals with being tricked by somebody he likes into being embarrassed all over social media. I think the reason that many kids may like this book is because they can find answers and solutions to these modern day relatable problems through the book. Because I have not read a significant enough portion of the book to understand any major plot changes or story line events, I just know the characters and their conflicts. This is almost better in a way, because I think of the characters being able to make any kind of mistake at the point they are in in the story. Teenagers need guidance from sources other than just their parents or adults, and books like this can help shed light on issues that are touchy and hard to address directly with other human beings. It is a more comfortable way to teach and learn for teens.

Overall, I am excited to learn and adventure further into this book, and to see how it affects me. I believe that it is interesting enough for teenagers to want to read, as well as informative enough to matter that their reading it. I think this book should be shared with kids our age to help them be comfortable with themselves.

Fangirl

The book Fangirl deals with many social issues such as college alcoholism and drug use. In the book there are two twin sisters who share throughout their child and teenage years an obsession with a book series called Simon Snow. But when one of the sisters upon leaving for college loses interest and strays from any relationship with her sister, Cath, she deals with the struggle of being new and alone in college,making friends, and keeping up with her love of simon snow and schoolwork.

Wren, the sister who strays from her childhood obsession finds her college life to revolve more around alcohol and dangerous experiences than actual work. As the storyline progresses, we see that wren is derailing and getting even worse. Her whole personality changes with this too. She becomes distant and hard to reach, and is more awake in her nightlife than her day life. This is a problem for many college students. When being given this whole new freedom, many young adults abuse it with illegal substances or influences like alcohol. Another example of this in the text is when CAths usually loyal kind boyfriend is seen making out with another girl while drunk at a party. IT is sad to see how substances like alcohol can easily ruin relationships. Alcohol blurs ones sense of judgement and pace. This leads to many irrational decisions and irrational behaviour. Alcohol has majorly affected the characters in this story and will continue to.

Overall, seeing how alcohol changed the people and actions in the story has made me back away from the concept of drinking in college. Something I admire about the main character Cath is that she has not had a single drink yet while in college. This shows that she has responsibility and will not have to worry about her safety in that sense. Alcoholism is a major problem for college students, and these students should be taught, beforehand, the rules of self monitoring and drinking responsibility.