It's scary when people who have a lot of power do bad things to one group of people, like the Nazis did to the Jews. I know that some people might judge me and my family because we are Mexican. I love my family and friends, just like Ellen and Annemarie. In your book, the Nazis separated families and sent them away for being different. Their differences didn't matter to them, but they mattered to the Nazis. We don't pay attention to our differences because all we want to do is have fun and just be kids. My friends and I have most things in common. Your book taught me that everyone should be treated fairly and that each of us is extraordinary in our own unique way. Our biggest worries are usually what's for lunch and if we get dessert. We all care about each other and we like being together. We have homework, and some of us even have annoying little siblings like Kirsti. We have races during gym class and we can't wait for recess. We are all just like Annemarie and Ellen in your book, Number the Stars. That's pretty much me and everyone around me. "Annemarie admitted to herself snuggling there in the quiet dark that she was glad to be an ordinary person who would never be called upon for courage." - Numbe r the Stars Level I – 2nd place Lucia Gonzalez, Grade 5, Visitation School, Mendota Heights Society was only trying to confine me, but now, I’m free. Luke and I have one thing in common, we are not going to hide anymore! So thank you, Margaret Peterson Haddix, for helping me escape out of that dreaded box. One year later, all the kids in my school know me for who I am. I was going to be myself, I was going to stand up for myself, I was going to be my own definition of cool. I could be free! I didn’t have to be popular, I didn’t have to like things that other people liked just to fit in. I have a choice! I didn’t have to be a part of that box. I didn’t have to hide behind a fake ID like Luke did. Then, as I read the last chapters of Among the Free, some of Luke's words hit me, “Because I’m a 3rd child.” Then I understood! I didn’t have to fit the norms of society. The box was cramming me in, pushing until I couldn’t breathe, making my personality suffocate. Every time I tried to get out of that box, it just got smaller and smaller. The version of a fake ID in my life was to hide in the box that society tried to put me in. I didn’t want people to know the real me. Luke had to get a fake ID and act like someone he wasn’t so he wouldn’t be discovered. There is more to me than my exterior.Īlthough I have short hair and look like a boy that does not mean I want to identify with being a boy. I hate that society puts a box around the way I look. In my life, people feel unsure of me when they find out that I’m a girl because of the way I look. When Luke told everyone that he was a third child, in Among The Free, the crowd felt unsure of him. I didn’t want people to think I was weird but, I’m the kind of kid that defies the social norms, the kind of kid that might make people unsure at first. I discovered that the real me isn’t a popular jock. I was afraid of people discovering the real me just like the 3rd children could not risk being discovered for fear of death. Society trapped the 3rd children just like it trapped me. That’s what I tried to be, but I was still the loner, the outcast, just like the 3rd children in The Shadow Children Series. I wanted to be the kind of kid that makes everyone laugh and everyone admires, the popular kid. I spent a whole year figuring out who I wanted to be at school. I looked like myself at school, but I was too afraid to be myself at school. Everyday when I go into the girl’s bathroom, I get weird looks and mean remarks because they think I’m a boy. I was immediately labeled as a nerd, dork, and weirdo. When I went to my new school I had no friends. At my old school, I was one of the most popular kids there. (Letter to Margaret Peterson Haddix, Among the Hidden) Level I – 1 st place Margo Sadler, Grade 6, Dakota Hills Middle School, Eagan
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