Look Both Ways Padlet Project by Alexander Collins

Introduction.

alexandercollins9 — 2024-10-19 18:29:58 UTC

Look Both Ways is a book written by Jason Reynolds. Jason Reynolds is from Washington D.C. and is currently 40 years old. Look Both ways is a series of books about kids in middle school from different perspectives. The theme I will be presenting to you in this book is friendship. Friendship is an important thing in life because friends can help you with troubling things in life.

Theme Exploration on Friendship

alexandercollins9 — 2024-10-19 18:52:45 UTC

Friendship is in the 3 stories "Water Booger Bears", "The Low Cuts Strike Again", and "5 Things Easier to do then Simeons and Kenzi's Handshake". Friendship is shown in "Water Booger Bears", by TJ and Jasmine being together on the way to and from school. As well as, TJ going to visit Jasmine when she had to go to the hospital from her condition. In "The Low Cuts Strike Again" everyone from the gang works together to make money so that they can buy food for their parents. In the book Bit, who is the leader, said to his mom, " figured you would be so, we got you a bunch of ice cream"(40). This quote shows friendship by people coming together to help each other when they are in need of help. In "5 Things Easier", Simeon and Kenzi are always helping each other out in different things. Some of those things are trying to get out of trouble and standing up for one another if someone is mean. An example is from when Simeon and Kenzi got in trouble and Simeon was vouching for Kenzi by saying, "He also has arms and legs. Feet and hands. And in the same way you don't want him silenced, you also don't want him to be invisible, do you?"(103). This quote shows the theme of friendship by Simeon attempting to help his friend not get in trouble.

Key Character Analyses

alexandercollins9 — 2024-10-21 13:34:14 UTC

Simeon and Kenzi are key characters in the book "5 Things Easier to Do Than Simeon and Kenzi's Secret Handshake." Simeon and Kenzi have developed, changed our perspective on them, and showed more about themselves throughout the story. For Simeon he hasn't really changed on what we hear about him at the start of the book. We hear that he's big and has a bright smile and is nice, and throughout the story he pretty much stays that way being extremely nice but Simeon also reveals that he is very defensive on friends. For Kenzi he somewhat changed from being said as a small kid who isn't really popular and being so small to be noticed, to a kid that is defensive for his best friend and being really kind. In this specific part of the story Kenzi stands up for Simeon after someone makes fun of him for his weight in 3 simple words "Better chill, Fredo" (110). Kenzi relies on Simeon to help him get to his next class because of his fear of the hallways and if Simeon isn't there to help Kenzi, Kenzi would keep getting hit by other kids who don't see him. This is a reason why Kenzi is fond of Simeon and is willing to be protective for him. A main thing that both of these character's have is experience protecting/defending one another when they are in trouble or they are getting made fun of by others.

Literary Devices and Structure

alexandercollins9 — 2024-10-21 13:34:57 UTC

Jason Reynold's uses a variety of literary devices such as symbolism, imagery, humor, and metaphors. Friendship is a special thing that allows people to do things that people wouldn't typically do to others. An example is from the first book "Water Booger Bears", where TJ and Jasmine have "friendship flags".(3) To them they slid empty snack bags and that would be a friendship flag for them, however if that were to happen to some random kid he might think someone is just using his locker as a trash can. In "The Low Cuts", when the gang goes to Ms. CeeCee for candy she answers "Look who it is: Eenie, Meanie, Minie, and Mo,". (29) This shows that the low cuts visit here regularly and some sort of a bond has formed between them that allows her to give them nicknames. In real life the only time I could see a grandmother saying that to a group of kids on 2 specific situations. A grandmother could call kids that if its halloween and they all did a group costume, or if the kids are her grandchildren.

Personal Reflection and Conclussion

alexandercollins9 — 2024-10-21 13:35:10 UTC

Look Both Ways represents things happening in the real world rather well. Examples of this are "The Low Cuts", where it's a group of people who buy and sell so that they can get what they want. This is in the real world too, it's called drop-shipping where you and maybe some friends buy either materials or products at a lower price then you sell the product that you made or bought at a higher price to make profit. In the story "5 Things Easier", the two people in the story strongly relate to me. I say this because they both defend each other like me who would also defend friends if something is happening to them.