Always Running Book Report

This is a story of baseball and how it is a team sport. The book relates with the title by showing how this boy named Sandy Comstock that plays on the Grantville Raiders and has a big game coming up. It was against the Newtown Raptors. He wanted to beat them and become one of the best teams. By the time he knew it he ended up on the Newtown Raptors team and he was going to play is old team. It was kind of like a baseball turnaround.

Prior to being assigned the reading of the memoir “Always Running”, by Luis Rodriguez, I had never given much thought on juveniles involved in gang life. Rodriguez achieved success as an award-winning poet; sure the streets would no longer haunt him - until his own son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the vivid memoir, “Always Running.” “Always Running” is the compilation of events Luis experienced during his youth in San Gabriel. The theme of the book is to always strive for the best things in life and to always take a stand for what you believe. Lured by the seemingly invincible gang culture of East L.A., he witnessed countless shootings and beatings, as well as senseless acts of street crime against his friends and family members. As a Latino in a poor neighborhood, Luis struggled through criticism, stereotypes, and mistreatment. With the help of his mentor, Chente, Luis saw a way out through education and the power of word to successfully break free from years of violence and desperation.

After reading all three novels, Always Running written by Luis Rodriguez, Soul on Ice written by Elgeridge Cleaver, and Lessons from San Quentin written by Bill Dallas, there are many similarities. All three novels are telling a story of their life. Where Racism, people, struggles, influences, society, prison are all things that Rodriguez, Cleaver and Dallas experienced in their life and had an effect on who they are today. Proving that how and where someone is raised can and will affect their decisions throughout life. However, it is up to themselves and very possible to emerge against the odds and transform yourself into a greater person because of your struggles.

Adversity is a difficult or unpleasant situation. The quote “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant” by the Roman poet Horace this quote is to be agreed with. The meaning of that quote is when something difficult occurs in life, it will reveal characteristics you didn’t know about yourself. To start, in Mexican Whiteboy by Matt De La Pena, shows that the main character, Danny, is struggling in life at the beginning of the book.

Grillo faced many things throughout his life to become the person he is now. Either good or bad all the changes he went through made a big impact in his life. Within the novel Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez, the main character Grillo changes throughout the story when he uses drugs, friends influence him and family problems are encountered.

In summary, the memoir Always Running better portrays the theme coming of age because the story presents Luis's transformation to adulthood more effectively and in more detail. Additionally, Luis's coming of age consists of a pair of aspects: learning that even the toughest of people have a breaking point and a significant amount of people care more for what people think of them that the independent suffering one goes through. However, many people will argue that the poem "Race Politics" better portrays them them of coming of age. Nevertheless, because unlike "Race Politics", Always Running allows for reader to conclude the wisdom Luis consumes from the situation due to the amount of detail and imagery provided in the

Caitlin lives an easy life not having to worry about much, as Martin lives with worry if he will be able to go to school or eat everyday. I Will Always Write Back is an autobiography about Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Granda becoming instant friends after correspondence through letters from country to county. Caitlin was the kind of person who liked to buy clothes and splurge items, but through meeting Martin it changed her completely making her want to help people in need. Caitlin helps Martin and his family through hardship with money, food, and everyday essentials that they need to survive in Zimbabwe.

-Do not put together the key and necklace, allow the students to do that at the altar time-

With the Fiction that a student reads there’s a chance that the author could be relating it to current events happening in today’s society nowaday. A huge struggle we see throughout our lives is discrimination. Reflecting back to Always Running, which does contain the matter of discrimination against Luis. Yet the important part of it all is the fact that it relates to something happening in today's time and age. “A car is pulled over, a pedestrian is stopped, an air traveler is pulled out of line. If the person is being singled out on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion rather than a specific action.” (NewsELA) This article I relate heavy to when comes to Luis situation mentioned throughout the book. It’s something that fiction does for the youth, it allows them the reality and the fact that some things do continue to come.

Defined by the book, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, “Unwinding”, is when a parent chooses to retroactively “abort” a child, on the condition that the child's life isn't “technically” ended. This is a process by which a child is both terminated and also kept alive. Conner, Risa and Levi are just kids, who have done nothing but live their lives and ended up getting punished for it. They are set up to be unwound or in Levi's case, tithed.

Like many novels in the young adult genre, The Maze Runner by James Dasher can be interpreted as a metaphor of the challenges of growing up. Throughout the novel, many undercover metaphors are revealed. A metaphor for birth, the boys are brought to The Glade with no memories, life in The Glade later becomes comforting like an ideal childhood. Unlike the peacefulness of The Glade, the maze becomes a period of adolescence. Eventually, in the end of the novel, The Gladers manage to fight their way out of the maze, entering the harsh adult world

This summer I’ve read the book Heat by Mike Lupica. This baseball themed book is a out of the park excitement. It’s about a 12 year old cuban boy named Michael who is newly orphaned but loves to throw killer heat. But everything goes downhill when Michael can't prove his age by a lost birth certificate and gets kicked off the team. Michael tries to do his best by supporting the team by the sidelines. It gets worst, since his brother Carlos is only 17, they have to stay in the shadows so they don't get separated into foster homes.

This Story starts off in Harlem New York with our young protagonist explaining her daily life of little chores. At the time in the story, she is also practicing her breathing exercises to prepare for the big may race that is coming up. This next piece of evidence leads us to her running related character trait.

In Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez recalls his time growing up in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s. Rodriguez writes of the hardships that his family had first encountered while trying to assimilate into American society and how he would often, while growing up, be criminalized by his teachers, law enforcement, other people, his peers, his community, and eventually people who cared most for him. Rodriguez recalls the times where he and some friends came together and created a family, a brotherhood of sort, in order to fulfill his need of belonging, but as other people in the community had also formed groups to consolidate power, thus marked the beginning of rivalry and the introduction of gangs. Rodriguez’s gang life had been filled with tragedies and filled with great times, but ultimately he tried to leave the life of crime and commit to an education. Rodriguez tried stepping away from the gang lifestyle by going to school and writing poetry, but ended up back in the life of crime after a serious altercation with the police. When Rodriguez went back to his gang lifestyle, he found the same gang that treated him as a brother, had shunned him away after Rodriguez had offered a solution to wither away the gang violence.

Always Running by Luis Rodriguez includes several different social issues. For example, there is a lot of hate towards Luis because of his ethnicity. He was constantly bullied because of the language he spoke and where he came from. If Luis spoke Spanish in school, then he