Entry Four

I chose In Darkness because one particular thing caught my attention.  As I was browsing through the selections, I knew what to look out for since this is my second year choosing from YALSA.  In Darkness had a young boy, the same age as me when I chose it and went through something devastating just like Japan.  The protagonist was trapped in an earthquake just like the 2011 one. After reading, I could connect Toussaint to some people I learned in history class but I didn't see any big or deep personal connections between myself and the novel.

I would recommend this book to people who like two sides to a book.  What I mean is that this book goes back and forth between Shorty’s life and Toussaint, this Haitian slave who led a rebellion.  I could relate the structure of the book to Whirligig.  To those who read it back in eighth grade, the book went back and forth between settings that seemed unrelated.  Then at the end, the whole story came together like a puzzle and you could connect everything.  So you can expect the book to be confusing at first mostly because you may not know who Toussaint is and how he connects to Haiti and Shorty.  I give this book 7 out of 10 because of those reasons.

Entry Three

 “She was wrong, I know that now.  It was not Dread Wilme who became the other half of my soul” (Lake, 126).  Here in this section of the book, Shorty, the 15 year old protagonist is recalling a time in his life when the Site Soley’s top official was killed saving his own life.  Shorty was just shot by a guard and there were vehicles coming right towards him.  Lucky for Shorty, Dread was there to save him but Dread was killed as he flashes back.  Throughout Shorty’s life, major events have happened to him so at this point, he is living with Manman (mom).  Dread supported them as well with a shelter on the Site and education.  Shorty saw Dread as a supportive father so when he died, Shorty had another hole in his life.  When Nick Lake wrote that Dread was not the other half of his soul, this puzzled me because this left me hooked to the story to find out who was filling Shorty’s heart and why Dread wasn’t.  Shorty received a stone that he currently has in his possession in the hospital that was brought down by the earthquake.  The stone was given by Dread during the last moments of his life so that is why the passage hooks the reader.

Entry Two

The main character, Shorty wants water instantly.  He also wants to be free from all of the rubble.  But when Shorty flashes back to his childhood, I am sure that he wants to change the timeline of his life such as the kidnapping of his twin sister or when his dad was killed right in front of him.  Toussaint wants the slaves in Haiti to be free from their owners.  He proposed a revolution that is about to take place in my book.  I can relate Toussaint right here because Toussaint wants to do this revolution in a non-violent way like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  A theme that is starting to appear in my book is that you must work toward your goals.  Another theme is that a non-violent protest or a revolution is usually better by what is accomplished than the violent means of a revolution.  My book, In Darkness, is structured like a normal book, with chapters, but when there is dialogue, the author uses a dash instead of quotation marks.  Also, the author will flip back and forth between Shorty’s actual life and Toussaint’s revolution which can be easily identified as it does it every other chapter.

Entry One

The main character is Shorty, a 15 year old Haitian boy who was in a hospital for a gunshot he took.   Shorty is part of a gang named Route 9 Another character is Toussaint, a character that Shorty imagines while he is in a coma.  I did not know about this Haitian slave so I looked to the Internet to do some research on Toussaint.  He was the leader in the Haitian Revolution.  The story takes place in a slum in Haiti (hospital).  Haiti has just been hit by an earthquake and patients around Shorty are dead.  Shorty is trapped underneath the rubble and his lack of water is making him conscious and unconscious.  When he is unconscious, his mind goes back in time to when Toussaint was alive.  The conflict is that Shorty is trapped and needs water and food.  If he was not trapped, he may not be unconscious and have flashbacks.  I have a question for the author, Nick Lake.  Why does Shorty think of Toussaint when he is sleeping?  I predict that once Shorty is cared for, he will realize that people need freedom and he will try to save many people as he can from the rubble.  I think his inspiration will be Toussaint.  I cannot think of any connections to other pieces of work.