11/18/12 I’m really enjoying my reading of Into The River for Mr. Hudson’s class. We are just moving through the first hundred pages, and wow! Lots of cool stuff happening right now. Jake, the main character, has just moved to a new house by the river in a very rural area. Coming from Boise, a pretty large city, it’s a shock. Though I’ve never really lived in the city, I can really see why Jake feels the way he does. I don’t need to live around entertainment to miss it. My house is way out in the country and, without a reliable internet connection, I often feel as though I’m missing out on the world around me. I wouldn’t deal with it by lashing out like Jake does, but I can understand why someone in his situation would do with it. I don’t know that I like the way George Wade, the author, portrays the parents. They aren’t realistic enough, I guess. Maybe it’s because Jake’s a little older than me (he’s a senior; I’m a junior), but I can’t see his parents leaving him alone in a house for that long, especially after he breaks a window the first week. The outdoor scenes are really cool and true to nature. There’s a stream by Jake’s house that’s really similar to one I live by. Seeing the description and having my own picture in my head made all the scenes where Jack goes down to the river—to reflect or vent or just yell—that much more realistic. I’ve certainly gone out behind the house and skipped some rocks against the water a few times. Again, maybe not as extreme as something Jake would pull, but still very similar. In class, we had a question-and-answer session about what we’d read so far. Jamie, another student in the class, said Jake had to be easy to write because all teenagers have problems. I agreed at first, but after having some time to think about it, I’ve changed my mind. All books have people with problems in them. Otherwise, what would be the point of reading? I can’t see that there’d be much of one. In this book, at least the problems seem real. Some of the books we’ve read about psychic kids and stuff like that hasn’t really interested me because it seems so fake, actually. Overall, though, I really enjoy this book so far. I can’t wait to read more. I hate to go so far ahead, but I may have to spend a few hours with it tonight. I want to make sure I have some well thought-out points for our next class discussion. If possible, I’d also like to bring up the argument about Jake being easy to write from last class back up. Not because I’m mad about it, of course, but because I think it doesn’t do the author justice. If you haven’t taken it from what I’ve said so far, I think it’s a very, very good book. One worth defending, for sure!