American Born Chinese

   I just finished the book American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. This book has three main characters; Jin, Chin-Kee, and the Monkey King. I noticed that all three of these characters had one thing in common. They are trying to fit in.
   Jin a Chinese boy who came to America. He is the only Chinese-American student in his school. Until a boy from Taiwan, Wei-Chen, joins his class. Jin tries to ignore him so he wouldn't be associated with another Asian. Jin tries to be an All-American boy to date an All-American girl, Amelia, so he gets a perm. Wei-Chen and Amelia bond by talking about Jin and Jin finally gets the confidence to ask Amelia out. By gaining confidence and asking Amelia out he begins to fit in and not be "the Asian anymore."
   Chin-Kee is Danny's cousin. Danny an All-American boy. An excellent basketball player and popular with the ladies. But when Chin-Kee comes to visit it ruins Danny's reputation. Chin-Kee pees in peoples soda, shoves his crispy cat guts with noodles in peoples faces. And that only leaves him one choice, transfer schools. Not all things end with a positive note.When Chin-Kee comes to America he tries to fit but with that he ruins Danny's  reputation.
   The Monkey King was born out of a rock. He heard of a party up in the heavens and decides to go. He waited on lines for hours and hours until he finally reached the doors. He was not permitted in because he was a monkey and he had no shoes. The monkey king decided the he would learn the art of kung-fu and the heavenly disciplines. With that he gained great power and beat up all the gods. Tze-Yo-Tzuh the "hight of the heavens and the depths of the underworld" shows the monkey king that with great power comes great responsibility. He also shows him the mastering the art of kung-fu and the heavenly disciplines got him no where.
   When I finished reading this book the three main characters taught me three different thing. I shouldn't change who I am for something I desire most. I shouldn't be embarrassed of my little brother. And fitting in isn't as important  as I thought it was. These are all thing that we should think about even if they seem super important.

Monument 14

    In “Monument 14,” by Emmy Laybourne, the consumer refuge is a fictitious Greenway store in Monument, Colorado. Set in 2024, the story unfolds in a world where all students have tablet computers that run on an national network; its collapse is the first sign something is awry since, as we learn, “the Network had never, ever gone down.” After surviving a horrific morning school bus crash caused by a freak hailstorm, Dean, a high school junior who is the book’s narrator, and 13 other surviving children find themselves in a state of profound shock, forced to organize a makeshift community within Greenway’s Walmart-like walls. 

    Once inside, they learn via television that a Canary Island volcano set off a tsunami that has taken out the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The eruption also initiated intense storms that have pummeled the rest of the country. And, in short order, the devastation is followed by an 8.2 earthquake, which compromises the seals of Monument’s chemical-weapon storage facility. This causes the release of deadly compounds that, depending on blood type, leave victims paranoid, violent, sterile or dead.

    Dean and two other characters, Astrid and Chloe, have blood type O. Meaning they are violent. Dean almost killed his brother, Astrid went total psychopath and went "AWOL", and Chloe scratched the other kids to death when exposed to the compounds. In the the end these three stay behind just incase the compounds get to them and they kill everyone on the bus.