Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading Dear Martin. It’s a book about an African American teenage boy named Justyce who grows up with the struggles that come with it. When I first started reading I didn’t want to read, but my mom told me that it’s not a book that anyone wants to have to read, but it’s a book that should read. I don’t think my mom fully understood that I just didn’t want to read a book in general, but it’s too late for that at this point. One of my favorite chapters in the book is the very first chapter. In this chapter, Justyce is trying to help his drunk girlfriend into her car. Right when a police car drives by that’s when everything goes downhill. The police almost immediately put Justyce into handcuffs completely ignoring his almost blacked out girlfriend. Justyce sat on the curb for hours while an attorney convinced the cops to let him go. Fast forward a bit and Justyce is in a debate class where the topic of the day is, does racism still exist? One boy strongly believes that racism no longer exists, he uses the fact that one of his African American friends is very wealthy, which proves nothing. The event that happened to Justyce the day before is finally brought up.  This brings the conversation to a standstill, seeing as Justyce just gets up and leaves. 

If you know me well you know that reading isn’t my favorite thing and I will do whatever I can to avoid it. At the beginning of the book, I definitely did a little bit of that, but closer to the end I just read. I didn’t read as much as I did the week before knowing that I only had to do one reading log to do, but I still managed to finish it this week. In the future, I might look for some more books written by Nic Stone. Through this whole process, I continued to listen to the audiobook while following along in the book. I continue to find this easier than just reading, although it might not be faster I actually take in the information this way. If anyone is looking for a book that’s not too long I highly suggest this Dear Martin, it’s definitely not a book for the lighthearted. 

Although reading definitely isn’t the most exciting thing in the world all it takes to change your opinion on that is one good book.