Was this project challenging for you? This project wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be. It was kind of difficult to divide up all of the work for the journals by myself and make sure to stay on track. Usually, I finish things fairly early so my banned book journals became a mixture of the chapters I was supposed to be on and what happens later in the book.
What was the easiest part of this project? The easiest part of this project was doing the reading because I really enjoyed the book that I read (Life Is Funny by E.R. Frank) and I found myself wanting to read more of it every time I knew I needed to put it down. Writing about what I read was also very easy because when you read a book that intrigues your interest the way mine did, you instantly have all of these thoughts and emotions that can easily take up half a page.
How comfortable did you feel while making your film? It was kind of weird recording myself talking about a book and having a very short amount of time to talk about it. I felt slightly uncomfortable watching it back as well. Recording myself wasn't too strange but the guidelines made it even more awkward than it already was. It felt forced and, in general, weird.
Did you receive critique from anyone? Was the feedback helpful? I didn't receive any critique on anything. I think the banned book journals were more geared towards responding to literature than critique and I found the responses encouraged me to keep writing the journals. I knew that the more content I put into the journals, the more conversations I would find myself in about my book or somebody else's. It was nice being able to talk to somebody about your book that they haven't read and hear what they think about what you wrote in your journal for that week.
Did you provide kind, specific, and helpful feedback in the journal workshops? Were these sessions helpful and/or fun? I think I gave good responses. I liked asking questions the most because I felt that it made the person who was reading the book think more about the characters, theme, plot, etc. or why something went a certain way. These sessions were very fun, it's always good talking to people who easily find themselves invested in a story line because it makes the conversation flow easily. I've talked to a few people in class who genuinely enjoy challenging the author's ideas and when someone brings up a good point, it challenged me to think harder about what the author is trying to say, simply through a sentence or all 200+ pages.
Did you actually read the book you chose? I did actually read the book I chose. This is the blurb of Life is Funny by E.R. Frank:
"From the outside, they're simply a group of urban teenagers. But from the inside, they're some of the most complex people you'll ever meet. There's Eric, fiercely protective of his brother Mickey-but he has a secret that holds together his past and future. Sonia, struggling to live the life of a good Muslim girl in a foreign America. Gingerbread and Keisha, who fall in love despite themselves. Life Is Funny strips away the defenses of one group of teenagers living today, right now-and shows their unbearably real lives."
My favorite character out of the entire book is Gingerbread or Drew. Drew is a very good kid who deals with a lot at home. His father is abusive towards his mother and Drew is stuck in between, throughout the book he fights this inner battle of being the one who says something or hides his family secrets by keeping his mouth shut, possibly at the expense of his mother.
If you could change one thing about this project, what would it be? I would want to change the amount of times we had to respond to someone's journal because I'd rather have someone comment one really good question/thought than 3 forced thoughts that aren't as significant to the journal. I noticed that on the first journal responses, everyone at my table was kind of struggling to come up with things to say which really never made for good or helpful comments.
What grade do you think you deserve? Why? I think I deserve an A because I turned every journal in on time, I finished my book 2-3 weeks early, I gave good responses to journals I managed to get the video turned in on time despite losing access to the previous video I recorded and needing to use someone else's phone to record it on. I had a lot of trouble accessing the internet and recording the video but I found a way to get it all done in the end.
Here is the cover of my book!:
And here is my Banned Book Video explaining why and where my book was banned!: