Ashes to Ashes Reading Response

In the book “Ashes to Ashes” Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian put character relationships to the test. They made the characters have second thoughts about what they did before, to see if it was worth it. One of the main characters, Mary, tested that theory. Her emotions through out the book caused aggressive ups and downs depending on her different choices and out looks.

Mary gained knowledge on the fact that she had vanished and had been misplaced. In the last two books we all thought that Mary was alive but it turns out that she was a ghost. She says, “What did I do to deserve this?... Please let me leave this place. Let me find heaven.” At this point she believed that she couldn’t win and won’t be able to accomplish what she intended. She wanted revenge on her alleged killer. This explains her actions through out the book. It caused her emotions to affect her personality and who she really was. Instead of being innocent and naïve, she became perplex and abandoned.

Mary involves other people who were her friends. Now, Mary was nowhere to be found. Kat spent a lot of time worrying about her. “She knows that I care about her. She knows that I’m her friend.” Mary didn’t understand the full situation. She wanted her friends to keep a promise. Once they started, there’s was no going back. Although Mary never came back, her friends decided to move on. One of the reasons she didn’t come back was because she was guilty. Mary felt rejected that she couldn’t leave, and was provoked by the fact of being alone. Therefore she felt no one was on her side.

Mary was a very frustrated character. The way she went around trying to fix her problems, ends up not only hurting her but also other people. Mary’s emotions seemed to cause disgust through out the book between her and other characters.

Summer Reading Response

Captivating, beautiful, and funny is how Sharon G. Flake invites us into Raspberry’s world. In the book Money Hungry we are within a world where it’s hard to trust others, keep everything together, and being successful. We follow all these things in Raspberry’s journey.

Through out the book we learned about Raspberry’s past. The book explains why she was so “money hungry”. She was homeless, yet she and her mother never beg for money. They lived with family and friends but after a while it was too much to endure. They never went to a shelter because Raspberry’s mother had her own experience being in the shelter. However, now they are back on their feet, there’s no going back. Her mother had two jobs and the only time they got to see each other was when Raspberry was driven to school.

 One of the key elements within the book was when Raspberry stated that she had money hidden all over her room, although her mother doesn’t know about it. Why would a thirteen year old need all of that money or have to go through this trouble? Well she was paranoid. We saw how she would do anything to get her hands on money. For example, she gave into giving her friend, Ja’nae money. Her friend needed to put back some money that she “borrowed” from her grandfather. It’s easy knowing that Raspberry had six hundred dollars and wasn’t willing give it to her friend. My observation was she was afraid of not getting her money back. Losing two hundred dollars will have her return back to her nightmares.

For instance, Raspberry did an odd job with Ja’nae and they got their payment for the work done, Raspberry took Ja’nae’s earnings.

We also learned how her mother felt about her daughter being “money hungry”. Her mother took the money and threw it out the window with good intentions. She was worried about her daughter and her money. Money almost seems like the one thing tearing them apart.

All Raspberry wanted to do was to protect herself and her mother.

Raspberry’s journey was about being tougher than the streets, not letting your guard down, and trying to excel the best way possible. Although these elements affected her relationships with others and herself. It leaves us to wonder was she really tougher than the streets?