IRP: Yesterday Erased

Joseff Filamor

June 4, 2013

Independent Reading Book: Yesterday Erased

Yesterday Erased by Andrew Schrock follows young teenager by the name of Drew Thomas. Throughout the book it shows Drew’s transformation from a comic-book nerd, to a member of the Cincinnati skateboarding scene. The book starts out by him writing to himself while he is alone at a party, sitting on a couch. He writes about how he came to be what he is today and slowly begins to review his life all the way back to being 14, which is where the book truly begins. First, it shows how Drew comes to be a skater, and then slowly shows his interest in girls and the party life. As he is crossed between staying true to skateboarding or joining his delinquent friends, he searches for the way he best fits in and most enjoys.

The author if this book; Andrew Schrock based Yesterday Erased off of his life growing

up. This was actually the first piece of real writing he has ever written, he quotes “This is my first piece of true writing. As I can remember, I only wrote half of a term paper in high school.” Andrew Schrock is not only an author, he also owns and operates his own skateboard company; ReVive skateboards, and he is also a YouTube partner that delivers videos daily.

I have been following Andrew Schrock for four years now, and I am proud to say that he is one of my idols to look up too. For four years, Schrock has been delivering skateboard videos of himself and his friends and has also been making video on the right choices to make in life, in other words; how to stay positive and never give up. When he first started, he had to work 3 jobs including making YouTube videos on the side. After a year of making videos, he became a YouTube partner and began to make money from every video he made, he was then able to quit two of the jobs he had. From the years of following him, I have watched him gain not only a major amount of popularity and respect, but also has made enough money off YouTube to

support his fiance and newborn son. He now has gained so much popularity over YouTube

that he was able to quit the other jobs he had.

In Yesterday Erased, he describes his life as a kid then growing up all the way to the point of him being twenty years old. Him being an actual skater in real life, he talks about real skateboarding, and what an everyday life of a skateboarder is truly like. I may have said this in my last independent book review, but this one is truly relatable. It may be based off skateboarding, but it also focuses on the social status of an everyday teenager. Partying, girls, and seeking the sense of respect and belonging.

Considering all of the positive feedback I recently stated, there is one con to the book; it goes very fast. Through the first chapter, he does not give a lot of background knowledge about who he is prior to his skate life. He writes about his everyday life; going to school, then going to the comic shop, go home and play videogames, then repeat. His daily agenda gets to be a little

too repetitive and redundant without any other side information.

Further more after that, Drew begins to shift into finding himself and slowly makes

friends that he can all relate too. Basing his character off Drew Thomas, Andrew Schrock writes his life through his perspective without almost no flaws. It is a fast read with plenty of

cliffhangers in each chapter and relatable teenage trauma.  Definitely one to order and read for yourself, you will not regret it!

~Joseff

Below is a video link to AndrewSchrock’s youtube video talking about his book. He discusses why he wrote, how, and what point in his life he was in at the time. Enjoy!