Wide reading entry #1-Nothing

Title: Nothing

written by: Annie Barrows

Text type: novel~fiction

February 2019

This book is about a 15-year-old girl named Charlotte and her friend Frankie they encounter many challenges and successes and write down what happens to them in that year of being 15-year-olds.

This book had many intriguing characters but the one I found the most interesting had to be Charlotte( the main character of the novel). She had to be the one I felt like I related to the most as being nearly the same age, we have some of the same issues “nights of homework, days of school, weekends of hanging around wishing something would happen”. Challenges with friends and relationships are similar also. I kinda felt like I connected with her and what she was saying “If we wrote a book about our real lives, nothing would happen”. I think most people around the age of 15/16 would find Charlotte very relatable as a person and be able to relate to her on their own personal level.

This book made me really think you just need to get out of your comfort zone sometimes. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on things. Sometimes you just need to get out of your everyday routine. I know that after reading this book it has really inspired me to get out and see the world more and to jump at the chance of trying new things “there wouldn’t be a plot because we do the same stuff every day” you never know you could die tomorrow. So by living your life thinking oh yea I might try it some other time, you just don know there might not be another time. By sticking to your everyday routine you never try new things, discover new things. for me I was never really a sports person then I decided to play rugby. After starting rugby I realised that I really actually enjoy the sport. this would not have happened if I didn’t get out of my comfort zone and try new things. I also took the message away of that you should definitely not judge a book by its cover like even if you have not seen someone don’t go assuming what they look like ” but she’s never met him” “probably because he has two noses”. Nowadays everyone does this assuming what people look like before they even meet them. But that’s with everything, you try to assume what it’s like, what it looks likes before even finding out what it is.

Charlotte had a lot of challenges facing her. The main one is being a teenager, being a teenager is one of the hardest challenges of all “There’s this unspoken —what? Idea, I guess—among all grown-ups that teenagers are bums. That all we care about is social media and it’s giving us brain cancer and making us dumb”. Charlotte also has the challenge of trying to keep up with the trends (the social norms), peer pressure, the pressure to jump out of her comfort zone to keep up with her friend Frankie “it’s like you give up without even trying sometimes”. peer pressure pushes you to do things that you might not exactly want to do. peer pressure is a massive thing in society today so many teens are getting pressured to do things they don’t want to which usually tends to end in bad situations. I know for a fact that I have had pressure from my friends and people I know to do something that I don’t want to do or not too sure about doing. and then I usually end up doing it because you don’t want to let the people down and make a fool of yourself. That’s what Charlotte did because she didn’t want to let her friend Frankie down, she felt like if she couldn’t keep up/change then she would lose her best friend.

The novel is titled ‘nothing’ ” a blank book you mean?” I felt the title to be enticing. I found it enticing because you can’t just write a book about nothing, “if you wrote a book about our real lives, nothing would happen. ever.” the book has to be about something. I felt as though if the author had have named it something else like my life or something along those lines it wouldn’t have the same appeal. I for a fact wouldn’t look twice at a book named my life. I believe a lot of people in today’s society judge a book by its cover and title but that’s just being human and that’s never going to change.

I think I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is in their teenage years as they would really be able to relate to this book “we’re not that lame”. and will be able to understand the issues that the girls are going through ” we did some homework, but I have more”. it really keeps you on your toes so, for people that like reading books where you never really expect what’s gonna happen, then this novel is the novel for them. there’s always a new challenge right around the corner for these girls which really keeps the book interesting.

I really enjoyed this book I felt it to be very relatable for someone my age I felt like the book really described teen issues “Now she spends most of her time on the phone. I’m not blaming her, because I do, too. Everyone does”. From friendship troubles to boy troubles ” Then Frankie showed me this picture she’d gotten from this guy Soren, which was him without a shirt, and she says are you actually sending me nudes u creep?” to school troubles… the challenges are never-ending. I really like the way they showed it through the novel it showed it as like you were apart of what was going on in the story and it really helps you think your not the only one going through these troubles. a lot of people nowadays feel like they can’t open up about their struggles I know when I am going through a hard time I really wish I could talk to someone who would understand but believe no one would.