Ah, Monday

To some of you, that may be a happy word. Some of you like the thought of getting back into the weekly groove. However, I like the weekend. You wouldn't guess from the name of my blog, now would you? To me, the weekend means finally slowing down. No more waking up at 4:45 for morning practice, no stressing over homework, no boring classes where falling asleep is inevitable. Unfortunately, Mondays have to come. But how about a quick fact about today, January 10th? Did you know: on January 10th, 1776, Thomas Paine published his famous pamphlet "Common Sense", or that in 1861, Florida seceded from the Union, or maybe more pertinent to our time, today was the day NBC announced their plan to move "The Jay Leno Show" to 11:35 p.m. and make "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" the new 12:05 a.m. show? Just a few fun facts I thought readers might enjoy.

Now, I'm supposed to name this post "Reading" and go on to summarize my book. But come on now. For some reason, I feel like something more creative would mask the fact that this may be boring. Maybe something like "Jack Gantos: Drug Smuggler to Award Winning Author" would be more enticing and trick readers into thinking what I'm writing isn't just an assignment. I'm not sure. You know, now that I think about it, my only "readers" are my sister and Mr. Hill. So maybe I should follow the assignment and not worry about whats going through their head when they read the title of today's post. After all, Mr. Hill did make the assignment. He should know what he's getting himself into. Then again, he did say we were the ones who decided if this was a "lame" assignment or something more. I think I'll choose to make this something more that just another assignment. I was, in reality, very excited after publishing my first post. Ask my friends. I think I talked about my blog more than anything else today. My dad even said it was "cute." Maddison knows thats saying a lot.

Mr. Hill, in hopes of making you happy, and satisfying my conscience telling me to title this something more creative, here is my subtitle.

Reading: Hole in My Life By: Jack Gantos Pages 3-54


This book is broken into three parts. The first, is his life in Florida, his history of frequent moves, and brief high school experiences. The second, as far as I've read, is his move to St. Croix and the start of his smuggling journey. Maybe he gets caught and goes to prison in this section too? I have yet to find out. And so, I can only assume the third part is about jail, and/or his life after. To be honest, I'm going to summarize less than what I've read in order to reach the minimum of three posts per week. So here it goes: the book starts off with Gantos talking about his personal experiences growing up. He talks about his dad, and how he had an eye for criminals. He could point out who had been in jail, and who was heading down that path. Gantos writes, "Dad's keen eye for spotting criminals of all stripes was impressive. But it wasn't  perfect. He never had me pegged for being one of them."  He goes on to tell how his family moved from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico because of  his Dad's construction job. He left his friends thinking he would never see them again. But once they moved and realized Jack wouldn't be able to enter public school due to the fact he didn't speak Spanish, his parents arranged for him to move back to Florida and live with some family friends to finish his senior year. Unfortunately, that living situation didn't work out. And instead of ruining the story for you, and frankly I don't feel like writing it all out, he ends up spending the rest of his senior year in a run down motel.

He works hard, though. Spending time doing extra reading and brain storming about topics for his own stories. Jack even makes plans to go to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. However, once he visits, he realizes its just like one big high school. Deterred by that, and the fact that his family is now broke and he can't afford schooling on his own, Jack makes a new plan: he will move back to St. Croix and help his father. Hole in My Life tells one more adventure Jack takes before moving, though. Long story short, his friend Tim Scanlon needs a place to stay for a few days (he didn't want his parents to know he was in town), they get extremely high, come up with the crazy idea they should sell drugs, go to a school in Tallahassee where Jack expects to get "the score", but instead, his two hundred dollar investment goes bad when Tim gets caught by two security guards. But no worries, he spends his last few days in Key West riding out a sudden tropical storm, visiting famous writers homes, and attempting to write about... a sea turtle in Ernest Hemingway's pool? Quite the story, huh?

As I read this first section, I couldn't help but think about the life I have. I can't imagine struggling just to get an education. Jack Gantos spent his senior year in a motel, whereas I, God willing, plan to spend mine in my two story house. It's funny how little my world is. I don't even think I realize how 10 miles away, there could be another Jack Gantos, someone struggling to make ends meet. Maybe I could help? Sometimes I think just smiling at a stranger, or asking a someone who looks sad if they need to talk is enough, but maybe its not. Jack made it on his own though, right? I guess I'll find out as a read the rest of the book.

Well, let's hope that wasn't as boring as I'm afraid it is. Maybe some of you will pick up this book next time you're at the book store. I'd certainly recommend it.