Fifth entry: after finishing the novel:

Are your impressions given a new meaning now?

I think most of my first impressions were right. I have Sam almost right appreciated. He’s a really good dad and takes much care of Roof and looks after him very friendly. Up to the middle of the novel I thought: Oh my god, Sam is a really complete moron. Why he runs away from home? He has such a nice mother and can talk with her about all his problems and he runs away. But it was wrong to think that he doesn’t use his chance to have such a young mother. He talked a lot with her after half the novel and got on like a house of fire. He has shared all his problem with his mother and I think it was good to have such a mother and you can talk about your sorrows.

What I learned that I never knew before:

I learned that not all people live so airily like we do. I know now that many teenagers have really big problems and life can be really hard and unfair. I didn’t know before that England has so many teenagers’ pregnancies. And I also didn’t know how hard it is to have a baby with 16. I think it’s a really hard job to manage your life with a baby and Sam and Alicia had the aid from their parents and not all young parents have this luck. I know now that not all kids life in such a controlled family background like I do.
Also I learned much about skater. I knew nothing about skaters before I read this book because I’m not interested in skating. And now I heard many about skaters like skating tricks like “Sacktap” or “shove-it”. But I have to say that I haven’t really understood how this tricks work.

Who I would like to comment the book to:

I would like to read some more comments of the book from other people in our age. Perhaps from people out of other countries because I think it would be very interesting to read how they think about the book and Sam’s life. I think not all over the world people think about it like we do.

Who should not read the book? Why not?

I think this book is not so adapted to read for people out of other cultures. I think people out of really poor countries wouldn’t understand the problem the book is about. Also I think people from countries e.g. out of Africa wouldn’t understand the book because there it is normal to have babies and to marry really young. And there they are all so poor that it isn’t such a problem to life with a baby when you haven’t got parents which pay for you.
Also I think it’s not a perfect book for strict Catholics or even priests. They think unlike we do about topics like having sex or abortions. So I think their meanings about the book wouldn’t be very good and they wouldn’t understand how you can live such a life like Sam.

Music/Pictures that might go well with the atmosphere

You’ll always be my baby by Sara Evans

I think this song “You’ll always be my baby” from Sara Evans is in line with Sam’s situation. The music is slow and calm and contemplative. And Sam and Alicia have to think about their future. In the song she sings that her father isn’t angry and he tells her that he loves her and she will always be his baby regardless of what stupid things she does. And Sam’s mother is so, too. She hasn’t screamed because Alicia is pregnant but she has talked to Sam about their future. And I think Sam will be a good and merciful father and he will always loves his son, too. So here I’ve included the video clip link and the lyrics.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=rDim9gD_pVA

There I was ten years old

Waiting in my room for him to come home

I just knew he'd be so mad

Though I begged my mother not to, she told my dad

There was no denying I‘d let him down

But instead of being angry

He put his arms around me and said

Chorus

In the sunlight or the rain

Brightest nights or darkest days I'll always feel the same way

Whatever road you may be on know you're never too far gone

My love is there wherever you may be

Just remember that you'll always be my baby

There I was, twenty one

Oh, I was so ashamed

Of what I’d done

On a country road

Parked one night

What started out so innocent, crossed the line

There was no denying, I’d let God down

But instead of being angry

He let His love surround me

And I heard

Chorus

In the sunlight or the rain

Brightest nights or darkest days

I'll always feel the same way

Whatever road you may be on

Know you’re never too far gone

My love is there, wherever you may be

Just remember that you'll always be my baby

Yeah yeah yeah

There he is, my little man

I’m sure he'll get in trouble every now and then

And I pray to God that when he does

I’ll be just as understanding, as my father was

'Cause the last thing that I wanna do

Is let him down

So instead of being angry I’m gonna

throw my arms around him and I’ll say

Chorus

In the sunlight or the rain

Brightest nights or darkest days

I'll always feel the same way

Whatever road you may be on

Know your never to far gone

My love is there, wherever you may be

Just remember that you'll always be my baby

Be my baby

Pictures that might go well with the atmosphere:

Fourth entry: after having read more than half the novel

Questions I would like to ask Nick Hornby:

• Have you friends which have born a child as they were so young as Sam and Alicia? Or why have you written a book about a young boy and his pregnant young (ex-) girlfriend?
• Are you skater? Or wherefrom you know such a lot of skater information?
• How long have you needed to write this book?
• What have you inspired to write this book? Was that providence?

A rough summary of the book so far:

The book “Slam” written by Nick Hornby is about a sixteen years old skater boy who’s called Sam. He’s an only child and goes to college. On a party where his mother was he met a pretty young girl, Alicia. He felt in love with her. But then a bad accident happened. Alicia got pregnant. Before they knew that they broke up. As she told him that she’s perhaps pregnant he dreamed in night about the future. In this dream he lived with Alicia and a little boy in Alicia’s house with their parents. Because this was such a big shock for Sam he run away from home to Hastings and tried to find work to earn money. But he only met a strange old man. So he returned at home. He met Alicia and they told their parents that she’s pregnant. Her parents were shocked, too. So they all went to Sam’s mom and told her about the pregnancy. Alicia decided to become mother. Sam and Alicia became a couple again. As almost the same time Sam’s mother told him that she’s pregnant, too. Alicia and Sam decided to live together with Alicia’s family when the baby is born. One night he had another dream about the future. He had a little sister called Emily. He lived in his own room again. Because Alicia was ill he had to look after his little two years old son, Roof.

Ideas which made me stop and think:

I think it’s strange to talk to a poster. It’s normal to have an idol and to know a book by heart. But it’s really curious to think a poster talks to you and sentences out of the book are advices the writer says to you.
It’s also strange to live with your girlfriend with their parents together with sixteen. I think that can’t go well.

Anything in Slam that I truly enjoy and that I even feel annoyed of:

I really enjoy that funny spelling style. Many situations are serious and not funny p.e. as they told Sam’s mother from the pregnancy but it’s so funny written that you have to laugh about it. That makes it so comfortably to read this book and so the book isn’t boring. But I really feel annoyed from Sam’s conversations with Tom Hawks’ poster. I think that’s so stupid to talk to a poster and think it says something to you and he does this so often that I feel annoyed of.

Third entry: up to the middle of the novel

How my feelings change:

Of course my feelings changed. First I thought that Sam is a normal, happy young boy. He’s like we are. He goes to school and skates a lot. Although he is an only child and he lives only with his mother, without his dad, he lives in a controlled family background. He only has normal problems for his age. But now I think he is a really poor young boy and he has too big problems for his age. To become father with 16 is not normal. I can understand that he is very confused and he has anxiety. It’s a really hard situation for him and for his mother and for Alicia and their family, too. And I can understand that he has many sorrows. I don’t want to change my life with his life. I really commiserate him.

Which question(s) I would like to direct at a particular character in the novel:

• Sam, do you think it is right to run away from home? Don’t you think your mum will die because she has so many sorrows because of you/ you run away from home and her? And do you think it is fair to let Alicia by oneself with all the problems?
• Mr. Brady, who are you? Why are you so curious and so unfriendly to Sam? You don’t know Sam. And why do you live in this B&B? Haven’t you got a home and a wife?

What I am confused about (events or characters):

I’m a little bit confused about Hastings. Sam described it as a funfair with many jobs… and now he is there and there is nobody and no work. It seems to be an abandoned place with only very strange people. And he isn’t really happy there. Mr. Brady is also a strange person. His character is a little bit confusing. And why wrote Nick Hornby this chapters? I think these pages are really dispensable. It’s boring to read this chapter. It’s too long. He could write this much shorter. And why wrote Nick Hornby about Mr. Brady? He hasn’t anything to do with Sam or his situation.
Also I’m confused about the dream. Is that a little outlook how the book will end? Why he dreamed that? Are these Sam’s biggest sorrows?

How I as the author would have changed the book:

I think the book is really good. But I would have written that he tells his mother very quickly about the accident. That would be easier for him and for the reader, too. A problem shared is a problem halved. And I wouldn‘t have written that he run to Hastings. I think this scene isn’t consistent to this book. I think it is ok that he run away from home, but I would have written another reaction, run away from home is no good solution.

Images/pictures I like:

• “I dreamed my way through school for the next few weeks. I dreamed my way through life, really. It was all just waiting.”
• “It always felt like a holiday, the time with Alicia, and the holiday would come to an end, and we’d still be girlfriend and boyfriend but we’d have a life as well.”
• “David Backhem and Posh Spice have sex in Brooklyn. And nine months later they have a baby. What’s the word? Brooklyn was somethinged in Brooklyn.”

Second entry: after the opening chapters of the book

The story „Slam“is really interesting. I can absolutely understand Sam. He’s young and he felt in love. Alicia must be a really pretty girl. But their relationship is a bit strange. I think it’s wrong to sleep with someone you know only since a few hours. I never would do that and I was really shocked about Sam because I thought he’s a brave boy. And I think it’s also wrong to sleep with someone you don’t want to sleep with. I think Sam’s life isn’t easy and it’s really difficult to have such a young mother. But he always blames her that he has damaged her future dreams and that’s not nice. All of us have problems with their mothers or fathers or sisters and brothers. That’s normal. But I think Sam has it easier with his mother to talk because she’s only 16 years older. She feels more with him and he doesn’t use this. I can understand Sam that he wants to spend all his time with Alicia but I feel also with his mother. I think it’s not easy for her to accept that Sam loves someone else and lives not longer only for her. Sam’s mother’s sorrows were right and legitimate. It was really stupid from Alicia and Sam to sleep together without using a condom. Because Alicia asks Sam’s mother how it is to be mother with 16 I think she already knows or divine that she will get a baby from Sam. But Sam doesn’t know it. I think the next time will be very hard for him. It will be a shock for him to experience that he will be a father in a few month because he didn’t want to make the same mistake like his mother. But my opinion is that he will support Alicia, but his mother will be very disappointed from him.


Phrases that caught my eye while reading:

• “Sometimes it can seem as though kids always do better than their parents.” (p.14, l. 9,10)


• “The whole point of friends is that you choose them yourself.” (p.21, l.28,29)


• “And I play the piano, so I listen to classical sometimes. There. That didn’t kill me, did it?” (p.30, l.11, 12)


• “I could think of a single thing she could say that would make me think she was a big-head, if it didn’t involve passing exams, or maybe sport” (p.43, l.19-22)


• “Because if someone tells you she loves you, then you’re bound to say it back, aren’t you? You have to be pretty hard not to.” (p.53, l.21-23)

First entry

I expect:

• many skater information
• a love story between Alicia and Sam
• in the background Sam's mother's difficult life
• problems in a teeny life, important time in Sam’s life difficult
• way from a child to a man
• many inner thoughts, perhaps about his future
• problems between Sam and his mother
• a interesting teeny story with many references to our life
• a story that could be real

I think I will have much fun while I will read this book. It must be a book perfectly for our age and in England it seems to be very successful. The comments from newspapers, magazines…. sound very ardently and the blurb sounds really interesting.

At home I’ve only read a few books in English. But they were all great and interesting and really easy to read. E.g. I’ve read “The bottle imp” by R.L. Stevenson or two Harry Potter books “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling. After I’ve read Harry Potter in English, I think, the German books aren’t really good. In English you can better understand what the author would like to say to you and the ambition to read the book is much stronger than if you read it in German.

Other texts we’ve studying in the classroom were only “The in-crowd” by Patricia Reilly and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. I think it could be useful to study texts in the classroom. You will experience a lot if your classmates say their thoughts to the book and to special chapters. But after a little while it is really boring to speak about a book and you prefer to do something else.