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“Hey, how is it in China?”

“I never been there before.”

“What, really? you’re lying, right?”

“No, there isn’t a sign on me that says “Made in China.”

“Well, tell me about it.” I never been there, nothing to tell….

That line “There isn’t a sign on me that says Made in China” has always been a motto for me since I was a kid. But the person who first said this to me was a 7th grader who likes to pick on second graders. He was like three times my size. I never really got his name,so I’ll call him Bob. Bob clearly didn’t like Asians at the time, all he wants is for all Asians to go back to China. My response to that would be not all Asians are from China. Only my mother was from China, otherwise everyone else in my family was born in the U.S. So Bob shouldn’t be

It all happened on the first day of school, this was my first day back at school again. I wasn’t really excited but I was excited to see my friends. But during my first day at school, I had to find my teacher first. And I would do so by looking for my class number which the teacher would be holding with a giant sign our number. When I was a kid, teachers would usually be my worst nightmare, those scary mean teachers. And plus at the time the staffs/teachers weren’t that great at the time, but some few. There was literally this one dean who would pick you up with her collar and choke you if you did something bad. They were scary.

During lunch time I would play fight with all my friends. We were all kids, what can you expect? We would see who’s stronger, who has better moves, the awesome sound effects, and who wins in general. But I usually play fight hardcore with this dark skin guy for fun, and the outcome would be me dropping him on the floor. He wasn’t hurt or anything it was just like a playful drop, none of us was hurt by it. That was when Bob spotted me out, he didn’t like the fact that an Asian wins over a dark skin guy. As we make our way back into the lunchroom, Bob decided to beam a football at my head.

Now, this didn’t happen to 10th grade Jason, where if I fall or get hit by something I would just shake it off. This was second grade small, Fragile, easy to knock over, Jason. When I saw a flying football in the corner of my eye coming right toward me, I knew I was gonna go flying, and that’s what exactly what I did as the football impacted my face. The force dragged me off my feet and I fell over. I burst out crying because of the pain surging through my skull, It hurt a lot. A teacher came over, one of the teacher I used to have, and she just rubbed my head and told me “it’s okay.”

I wasn’t too happy about that since the guy didn’t even get in trouble, but ever since that day, he always picked on me. While in the lunch lines his friend and him would just bust in front of me shoving me out the line, and if they were to get caught. All they would do is start saying Racist joke.

“Get your Ching Chong outta here bitch,” said one of his friend.

“Chill, he’ll get Jackie Chan on your ass!” said another one of his friend.

“Hey, how is it in China?” Said Bob

“I never been there before,” I said

“What, really you’re lying?” Said bob

“No, there isn’t a sign on me that says Made in China!” I said upset

“Well, tell me about it,” said Bob (Laughing)

“You stupid” I said (Because he clearly doesn’t understand I never been there.

“Well, tell me about it when I send your ass flying toward China and the great wall of China!” Said Bob, wanting to hit me but a staff was right there.

I just stood there quiet because I was scared of them. I never really understood why they dislike Asians so much. In my mind, all they were, was jerks who didn’t have a life and had nothing to do. I honestly despise those type of people. Every time someone ask me something related to my race without consideration that can offend me, I would just want to let out my anger on them. I’m glad I never have to see them again. And If I were they would be in a pickle this time.

We, in America, often have this negative view on poverty, this image that in impoverished communities around the world there are skinny unhappy kids living in small broken homes. Media, literature, and people in general tell a single story about poverty, to make the viewer upset about the issue and view it as a bad part of the world.

I’m not dismissing all of these stories, but I know they aren’t universally true. I know this from my trip to Nicaragua.

It was the third day of our one week trip and the impoverished area we visited really made an impression on me. We were around the capital, Managua. The first 2 days were spent shadowing at an elite school and exploring the history of Managua. For the next three days we were going to be driving an hour out of the city to a rural area where people who had been living in the city dumps had been pushed to. There, we would be working with the Chacocente school, a small Christian school that took over the one room public school previously there. They were working with organizations around the world with the mission of providing their students with a well rounded education that could compete with the rest of the world.

Our drive to the school started at 6 in the morning. After an hour on highways, we pulled off onto dirt paths leading through farms and empty fields of dust. On the side of the road there were tall horses, so skinny you could count each rib. Next to them were little dogs, their legs so flimsy they were struggling to walk. Looking past the animals were small houses built from reused tin roofs and big cement blocks. No running water or full electricity was obvious. This image of poor communities was one I recognized, probably from the way the media represented disparity. I was prepared for what was to come, the sad kids who were losing their will that I had seen in commercials asking to donate for ending world poverty.

We finally pulled up to the school buildings and hopped out of the van. I could immediately feel the dust and heat affecting me. The head of school came over to us, “Hola nuestros visitantes, should we start your tour?” He began to walk us through the close school buildings, each a small classroom. The computer lab was our last stop, a small room full of 2005 Dell laptops. “All of our computers are donated from schools and people from around the US who have no use for them anymore, we are very fortunate to be the only school in the area with computers,” the head of school explained. It really hit me then that the things we throw down as worth nothing really changed their opportunities for education and to communicate with people in the world.

Next, we were going to spend the rest of the day with the students of the school at their field day. We began by playing tug of war over a mud pit. We pulled to our side, they pulled to theirs, and we all couldn’t stop smiling. I looked around and everyone was happy, even the ones I least expected.

The kids of the school were put in a horrible situation by our standards. But looking around this community, they weren’t pushed down by it. I came to the realization that they knew no different, this was how they lived and they hadn’t experienced anything else. I had been very narrow minded before this experience, expecting them to look the same as all those commercials make impoverished people out to be. I’m sure if any of us had been put in this situation from birth we wouldn’t sit and cry about what we didn’t have, because we didn’t have experience of what we we were missing, it was just a form of living. The heat all day led to more complaining than I saw any of the kids of the community complain about. We got more upset by the little unnecessary things we were missing for a few hours, than happy about all the great things we had that they wouldn’t be able to imagine of. When we gave the students little presents, we made them all bracelets, they were full of joy, smiles, and thankfulness, even though these gifts wouldn’t change their living at all. This made me think about how I can be more appreciative of everything in my life and be ecstatic about the little things people do for me that might not mean too much as far of survival, but a lot as far as caring.

When it come to reading, Quran is pretty neutral. He slightly enjoys reading but also really does not care for it. For example, if Quran was asked to read in his free time it would not be something that he enjoys, but he also would not mind it. Just like most people Quran does have a known weakness when he reads. At times he reads over the words in the book and does not comprehend what he is reading.

Quran is a gifted reader and does not have a problem ready any type of book, except for the book ‘The Life of a Slave Girl’. This book is the worst book Quran has ever read he even would like to throw it out of a window. On the other hand Quran still has a sympathy for books. Quran loved the book green eggs and ham when he was younger and still does till this very day.

Fabian Colon has been a big reader since the 6th grade. His one childhood book that he still likes now is the giving tree. His favorite genre of books is mythical. So he likes books like Percy Jackson and harry potter. When he is happy, he likes to get right into the news! To him, reading is looking at words and taking them down.

      Kara wants to be a more passionate reader. She wants to take reading more seriously by reading on a daily basis. What's holding her back are other priorities. Things come up that she has to attend to and that takes up a lot of her time, which leaves none to read. A weak spot that Kara has is focus. She often finds herself not being able to concentrate on a book for a long period of time. She has to take breaks to regain focus again. 

      A book from Kara's childhood that she still loves today is Ella Enchanted. She was able to be apart of a play which caused her to have to understand the characters and understand them in a different way than just reading the book. She had to be a different type of person, more so have a different type of mindset when reading and analyzing this book, which caused a deeper connection. 

      When the question "What book would you through out of the window and why" Kara's response was "I have no idea." She hasn't read as much books as she liked which means she had a small variety to choose from. She also was not able to relate to any book that she has read. She found that all the books that she has read that were not like her in regards to race. They were mostly White and as a Black person or of any other race you would not be able to relate with what they are facing. Ella Enchanted has a bossy mother which she could semi-relate to'; and also other books held racism which she can relate to as it is faced today. 

Elani likes reading “a lot”. Growing up she always had a book with her. Her greatest influence was her mother, who was an english teacher. She enjoys reading because it allows her to learn about different experiences. Whenever she reads a new book, she gets to explore new topics and adventures that she knew little or nothing about. Although she does love reading, she does not like all types of books. Elani only likes certain books that suit her interests. History, lifestyle, and just boring books do not fall in her list of good reads. A predictable book is a pet peeve of hers.

Elani would like to be a reader that understands everything that she is reading. She wants to be able to understand the purpose of her reads and why they were written. Her struggle with understanding is that she has not read too many books with reasonable morals.

 Mohammed is a reader that is mainly into fantasy texts and any other takes a lot of work for you to get interested in them. His love for fantasy books stems from him reading the Harry Potter series as a kid. His favorite being the fourth installment, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter is a book that he loves till this day because of how the main protagonist is relatable with a lot of depth.
 Mohammed struggles with sticking with a book, it is hard for him to find a book that maintains his attention. He also struggles with finding the motivation to read. His reading happy place is when he finds a book that is so interesting that it doesn't feel as if he is reading. His weak spot in reading is that he doesn't comprehend books with complex sentences as easily. 

J’lynn does not find her happiness in books. Reading is not her favorite thing to do. She does not find an interest in most books but when she does she can never get enough of it. J’lynn’s favorite book is Hollow Went Down and she described it as turkey meatloaf. She said it was like turkey meatloaf because you can’t just have one bite, you need more. J’lynn wanted more of the book, she couldn’t get enough of it.

J’lynn tends to abandon books so whenever she finishes a book completely she is proud of that read. She doesn’t feel pride when she abandons books because she knows that she can finish it she just doesn’t have an interest for it. If she could throw a book out the window it would be the Hunger Games. She hated the way that it was over glorified because she found the book to be very predictable and that “the plot was trash.”

J’lynn loves the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. That book was the first book that that she was really expoused too and it was just a large part of her childhood. Her reading happy place was really anywhere but especially on the trolley on her way home. She said it is a nice way to end the day.

Jamal’s happy place in reading is when he receives a new book. He becomes intrigued from the fresh start of a new book. With all the positives that come along with reading, there are some negatives when it comes to reading for Jamal. If there is a chapter that isn’t as interesting to him he can begin to read words without really comprehending them which is one of his weak spots.

If Jamal’s life was a book he stated the title would be “Out of Control Life of Jamal”. The book he is currently reading now is “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. Reading autobiographies on important men and women that were a big influence on the world is books Jamal loves to read. Maze Runner is the book that Jamal feels he relates to the most!

Tigidonkay goes by TK and she enjoys reading the most on her bed by the window in the evening while it is raining outside. Her favorite genre is Science Fiction. The best book that she has read so far is called, “The Mysterious Benedict Society”. A reading dealbreaker for her would be a story that unnecessarily goes on for too long.

When asked, “If the current book you are reading now was a person what kind of person would it be,” She responded by saying that it would be a kind and gentle person who gets a thrill out of discovering new things.

If her life was written in a book, it would be called, “TK in America”. It would hold details of her journey from Sierra Leone to America.

Savannah only reads what she thinks is interesting to her. Something that blocks her from the busy and loud world around her. A book that lets her explore new things besides the things that she experience everyday. There are times where books fail to grab her attention and keep her in their world, so she decides to end their relationship together. She doesn’t like books that makes her sad and biographies, that talks about someone else’s life.

Her favorite childhood books that she still loves today would have to be “Gullible’s Troubles.” It’s a book that she loves until today because she can relate to it; she’s gullible. It’s also an interesting and funny book because the protagonist of the book believes in everything that’s everything he’s been told. Another book that she still loves is, “Goodnight moon,” in this bedtime story, the narrator said goodnight to. She said that the book is cute and it’s calming in a way that can help her sleep as a kid. Maybe even till now….

“Exploring Black Girl Magic,” that would be the title to Savannah Manns’ life. Why, you would ask? It’s because she want to be a better version of herself. Even though throughout her life she’s on a journey to finding the real Ms.Manns, in the black community, she’s found some magic in her. She grew up with a difficult situation in her family, but she’s getting there. As she goes on with her life, exploring the black girl magic in her, she’s also learning more and more about the world around her through the books she reads.

Ever since Charles was a little boy, he loved reading. Diary of a Wimpy Kid entertained him through middle school and was the gateway into more advanced reading. The interesting cartoons in the book told him that reading does not always have to be boring. He always hated books like non-fiction that would throw words at you in an extremely boring way, but he realized that all he wanted from books was to be engaged.

Motivation was a big problem for charles concerning reading. He didn’t read much. He still doesn’t read much, but he tries. Right now, he’s reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and he loves it. His favorite character right now is a character in the book, the main protagonist: Junior. Junior is an Indian boy living on a reservation. The book is very similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with the medley of childish cartoons and real problems. This one is much darker as it deals with a lot of the struggles people on a reservation have. This works for Charles. As he gets older, he moves onto more advanced reading. Maybe he’ll read a lot more too.

Siani’s favorite place to read is, surprisingly, the bathroom. She finds it to be the most quiet place when she needs to read something. For the same reason, she can’t really read around her friends, or just loud places in general, since she gets distracted easily. No one ever bothers you when you’re in the bathroom, reading or not, so maybe she’s onto something here.

In any case, that’s where she reads her books, including her childhood favorite, The Outsiders. The Outsiders is still to this day her favorite book from when she was younger. It was partly because when she first started it, she didn’t really like it. Eventually, though, she did get into it, and from then on she fell in love with it. The opposite is true of the book To Kill A Mockingbird, which is the book she’d most like to throw out of a window. Maybe it was because so many people claimed it was so good coupled with her inability to really get into it that made her dislike it. It also may just not be her preferred style of book.

What is her style, however, is Teen Fiction. She feels like her favorite genre is Teen Fiction, mainly because she just thinks life in those stories are so much more interesting than in real life, while still maintaining a relatability that other genres don’t reach. She just finds it more entertaining than most other genres out there. To her, it’s basically real life, if real life had more fun and crazy things going on in it.

Sopheary Sok does not read often, but when she does, she makes it count. She enjoys science fiction books because they encompass realistic fiction and fantasy. She has read The Giver and enjoyed the dystopian novel because it explored fantastical elements. Sopheary hopes to read more often, but has trouble finding sufficient time to do so.

   Sopheary favorite reading place would be in a cute coffee shop during fall. She would enjoy this setting because it is calming and peaceful. Sopheary weak spot in reading is getting invested in a book. She has a hard time getting engaged for long periods of time in books.

Elanor Shamble likes reading, but when a specific book is assigned — not so much. Three books she hurl out a window so they can “crash and burn” are: Island of the Blue Dolphins, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, and The African: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

Instead, she is much interested in non-fiction books, with rarely any character interaction. If she had a choice to be in any book she has read — it would be her second grade novel called “No More Dead Dogs” which takes place in a middle school. The main characters are apart of drama club, it has an overall happy vibe. If she were placed into her usual genre of books she’d be quite lonely and in a fourth dimension or outer space.

Mekhi friend is not a person that you will always see with a book in his hand, but when you do it will be a very unique book. The book that started his journey into the reading world was Green Eggs And Ham. If his life where to be described in a book title it would be “The Chronicles of…” The reason why the title seems incomplete is because his life is incomplete. There is not one Genre that he specifically dislikes but he hates boring books. Mekhi likes books that can keep him entertained and interested for the whole book.

Thomas is not that interested in books. He usually only reads them when it is for a school assignment because he does not relate to content in many books. The only book he really related to was,”No More Dead Dogs” because it was a book about a white boy is middle school who was very much over being there, and that how Thomas usually feels about school. He will not read a book unless he has prior interest or knowledge in the topic or has actually learned about the topic before.

While he considers himself to be a good reader because he pays attention to detail and is able to understand the message, Thomas usually is not inspired by the books that he reads.He feels both uninspired and unmoved by many of the books that he’s come across, and they usually don’t have an impact on him. One of the few that did was the book,”Franklin’s First Day of School” because Thomas read it many times as a child and grew to be attached to it. Even now in his teenage years he still connects with the book. Thomas may not read a lot of books, but when he finds one that he likes it has the ability to deeply resonate with him.

When reading, Luis likes to be able to fully concentrate on whatever book he is reading, and therefore believes that the best location to read is somewhere quiet and separated from others. The best time for Luis to pick up a book is when he is feeling calm and in a ‘neutral’ mindset. He does not want to have too much on his mind that would cause him to lose focus on the book he is reading.

Luis enjoys reading books that he feels he can relate to somehow. For example, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4’ is a childhood favorite that Luis has never forgotten because of its commonality, as well the fact that he deeply identifies with the main character, Greg. On the other hand, a book that Luis would like to disappear is ‘Donald Trump: The Art of the Deal.’ He believes that the ideas and practices that Trump displays in the book are very outdated and do not have relevancy to our 21st century society.

Similar to most good readers, Luis has had experiences with reading that weren’t so ideal. When reading ‘Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member,’ which was a school assigned book, he just could not truly invest himself. He ended up not even finishing the book and began going to websites like Sparknotes for summaries that would help him pass the quizzes. He describes this as “not his proudest moment.”

If Athalia’s life were a book title it would be “A Roller Coaster”. She says she’d name her life this because she feels that everybody has their own personal struggles and up’s and Down’s. Although Athalia does not read often, her favorite childhood book that she still loves is Captain Underpants. She says this is still her favorite book because it is funny and helped her get over her own personal up’s and down’s.

When reading humor captures her attention, if a book does not have humor and continues to go on and on she may lose interest. Biographies are her least favorite book genre, theses are her least favorite because she feels they go on and on and the are often boring. Although Athalia doesn’t read much she wants to become someone who read every once and awhile.

Ella’s reading happy place includes school, the bus, or a bench somewhere, as home has many distractions, and any distractions will give her a hard time when reading, this also goes for any place too loud or eventful.

Ella really enjoyed reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, in Mr. Kay’s English class last year, she had read it previously already, but like the chance to delve further into it in class. In contrast she did not at all like reading Lord of the Flies in class, she found it boring and dragged out, it was not a good time, in fact, she might go as far as saying it was a bad time. She has similar feelings about her current independent reading book, Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, because it has little to no plot and is a bit of a mess. Though she has been meaning to change it, she hasn’t gotten around to it yet and so, for the meantime, is stuck with it. Instead, she says it would be cool to explore more books in the horror and sci-fi genres. Be sure to wish her good luck on her book hunt!

Nadia would like to be the reader that stays consistent. She would like to be more consistent, but other priorities hold her back. One of the books that she would like to toss out the window would be all books that are boring. She claimed that she likes all genres of books, but if the authors are bad, the book becomes boring to her.

On the other hand, her reading weak spot would be looking into the boring books. She stated, “I don’t give books a chance. It has to be interesting.” One of the books that brought out the most emotion from her was a book about a black girl growing up with a white family. “It was a paranormal book about a girl who was a vampire. It was weird. She was like a human experiment. The main character was going through a lot being an abnormal character.

Harrison seems to be a great reader. When I asked him what his favorite book was from his childhood, he told me that it was Green Eggs and Ham! Can you believe it I guess Dr.Seuss leaves his mark on children and on teens. The book he would like to toss out the window and hit someone with would be the book he read in english last year would be The Book Thief. Sounds boring huh? Lucky for the people in Pahomovs class that book wasn’t even mentioned to us, not once.

Harrison wants to become a better reader than he is now. Which I think is very possible for him to do if he puts his mind to it. He wants to read much more than he does now, what’s holding him back is that he can get really distracted, but if he likes a book he will read it and finish the book. He doesn’t really have a favorite genre of reading, he says if the book is interesting then that’s the book that’s he’s going to read.

Don’t text Harrison at night, he’s busy reading and nodding off. Having a dream about something nice. :)

The book that nick is currently reading is a map of betrayal. He likes the book so far but finds it confusing at times and wishes he could grasp the vocabulary better. While interview him I asked him a plethora of questions. The first question I asked him is wheres your reading happy place. He odly said in loud places because the noise helps him concentrate. When I asked where is his reading weak spot he responded by saying “reading outside of my favorite genre”. I then asked him Under what circumstances can you not read a book. He said “When the environment I am in is to quite because the silence drives me crazy”. The last question I asked him is what book do you remember from your childhood. He said Harry Potter because it was the first major series he read.

The Crucible, as personified by Darius, is “a weird old man hyped up on shrooms.” The book talks about a town of people on a type of drug that causes them to hallucinate and see people as the devil, and witches, so I think the description fits.

He’d say the book would taste bittersweet, saying the towns people stayed true to themselves, and yet still ended up harmed in the end. “They get to die themselves, at least.”

Away from the book, I learned his ‘reading happy place’ is the bathroom, where there are no interruptions, and his reading weak spot is fiction-ish books that guarantee drama.