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.