Independent Reading Response

Critical Thinking Question: What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?


    I read the book, Teen Angst? NAAAH... by Ned Vizzini. This book is an autobiograhy of Ned Vizzini's childhood. Vizzini grew up in Park Slope and lived a normal life, one kind of like the life we live now. He does have to go through a few hard things in his life but he overcomes them. He was always a great literature writer. In school, he was an outcast. He was known as a "geek" or "nerd". Vizzini wrote this autobiography when he was nineteen.

    Ned wrote about most of his phases of childhood, from when he was nine to when he was nineteen. Ned was an A student. He was always studying because according to him, it was fun. Ned went through some rough times. Peer pressure was one of those times. Ned went to camp every summer. One summer the boys in his camp were smoking, so he decided to try it out. He tried it because the other boys were doing it. It didn't taste the way he expected it to taste. According to him it tasted "raunchy", and he "got very dizzy and began hacking ". Peer pressure was not only a problem then but it still is now. Many kids get influenced to do many bad things now-a-days because of other kids doing the same thing, or because other kids are making them do it. Peer pressure usually takes place in school, but as you saw here it can take place anywhere.

    Over one summer, while Ned was in high school, he met some "hobos" or street people on east 4th street. He would spend most of his summer with these people playing dominoes. The "boss" of the block, Poppy would bring endless supplies of beer for the people that played. Ned would play and even though he wasn't at the legal age for drinking, he would still drink and get drunk because he had an endless supply of it. The influence he was given from these older people was horrible. He was given the idea that drinking at such a young age was a good thing. Many kids get influenced by adults now-a-days and some adults can influence them in a positive or negative way. Many adults have influenced teens and kids to believe that it is okay to smoke and drink. This happens all over the world and these things can easily sicken people.

     In conclusion, the autobiography, Teen Angst? NAAAH... written by Ned Vizzini and about Ned Vizzini, includes many of the hard things and problems that society is facing now. Some like teen drinking and smoking. Ned was a social outcast, but in the end, he succeeded in life and became a succesful author.