Independent Book

  Every month in our class, we read a different book independently. For the month of November, I read Mayday by Jonathan Friesen. Basically, it was about a girl named Crow (a nickname derived from Coraline) who was killed in a car accident, but was given a second chance to go back and change one point in her life. Crow’s objective was to stop bad things from happening to her sister, Adele.  But, instead of going alive back to Earth as herself, she had to go as a different person, under the identity of a girl named “Shane”. Shane had to create a false background for herself in order to help Crow reach her objective of saving Adele from a day she calls “Mayday”, the day the sisters’ family fell apart. I won’t spoil how it ends, but it was a really good book, I definitely recommend it.

At our school, we have a yearly ‘book fair’ which is run by a  publishing company for kids, teens and young adult books called Scholastic. I love to read, so I always try and take a look at what books are in each year. The cover of this one caught my eye, I picked it up, read the synopsis on the back and I couldn’t resist buying it. I think it was the right decision. I recommend this book, even if you don’t like fantasy/fiction. The author created the story in a way so that a made up scenario connected to everyday life events in America so real, that sometimes I forgot this story was made up. The story really captures you and makes you feel in the moment of the story.

This book connects to American culture by the means of family. It shows how many of the different kinds of families that are in the U.S. by representing them through the different characters’ families in the story. Crow and Adele’s parents divorced, and their father ran off from their family, so they do not see him anymore (they don’t know where he is). Their mother remarried to a man named Jude, whom Crow despises. After all, he was the cause of “Mayday”.

“Shane” makes up the background that she is an orphan who lives in the attic/tree house of Crow’s house for a long time. Some kids in real life unfortunately are like this is well. They have no family or home, but they do not want to be put into foster care or an orphanage like the government will often do. This occurs most often in cities, but it can occasionally occur in suburban-like areas, such as where Crow lives.

Not only the structure of some families are shown, but also the closeness of families. Crow and Adele are very close, and have been since their father left. Their mother blames his leaving on Crow often, and thus the two are not close. They cannot trust one another, but they can still coexist. Jude on the other hand, is one that Crow cannot stand. She nicknames him as “The Monster” in the book, and in return, Jude doesn’t like Crow either, although he adores Adele. Even a family like this, which is somewhat whole, still is stitched together unevenly.