Monthly Archives: November 2024

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

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American Born Chinese is a graphic novel written by Chinese-American cartoonist Gene Luen Yang in 2006. The novel focuses on an immigrant teenage boy named Jin Wang, who goes to a school in the United States where his classmates and teachers are all ignorant of his Chinese background.

In addition to Jin Wang, two, possibly three other main characters are included in the novel and towards the end of the novel are brought together for a specific purpose. These characters are the Monkey King, who struggles with his identity as a monkey and wants to be human, Danny, an American sitcom character whose life is ruined when his cousin, Chin-Kee, a sitcom character who is a racial stereotype of Asians, comes to visit him and tags along at school.

Gene Luen Yang’s humorous approach, artistic talent, and clever storytelling make the book very entertaining. The novel also comes a few important themes. A few underlying messages can be found in the novel, such as identity and transformation, stereotypes, and coming of age. Both Jin and the Monkey King experience changes in themselves – Jin becomes fed up with being Chinese American and starts to go by Danny, the Monkey King, after being kicked out of a dinner party in heaven, studies the many principles of kung fu in order to transform himself into a more human-like being.

In conclusion, this graphic novel is one worth checking out. With three seemingly unrelated stories about identity based around Chinese legends and stereotypes, Gene Luen Yang’s tale is bound to entertain anyone.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

What is MUN?

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Model UN or MUN is an extracurricular where students go to conferences and pose as delegates of the United Nations. At these conferences, students are delegates of their assigned country, where they work together to attempt to to solve a world issue.

Some may not fully understand what delegates do in their committees, but want to join MUN. Listed below are normal procedures in a MUN conference.

  1. Speeches: Each delegate gives a one to two minute speech outlining their ideas for solving the committee’s problem. Every speech should include background information on the subject, country policy, and your solutions as the delegate. 
  2. Unmoderated Caucus: UN MODS are unstructured discussion sessions (that lasts around 10-15 mins) during which delegates are free to speak with one another. You can create resolution groups during UN MODS with nations who have similar country policies or similar solutions.
  3. Comments: After every delegate’s speech, there should be two comments (each lasting about thirty seconds) during which the delegate addresses the past speech. 
  4. Moderated Caucus: MODS are scheduled, structured debating sessions that specialize on resolving a particular aspect of the topic. Early in the conference, delegates use the MODS to discuss and debate various concepts. Basically, it’s a debate format where delegates can speak for around 30-60 seconds about a certain subtopic.
  5. Resolution papers: Once meeting in UN MODS, delegates make resolution papers together on the topic, combining all their solutions together.
  6. Presenting: After all the resolution papers have been made, 1/3rd of each resolution group is allowed to present it to the whole committee. For example, if there are 6 people in your resolution group, 1/3rd of 6 is 2, so there are 2 people allowed to present.

I love MUN because you get to meet new people and act like a true United Nations delegate. MUN is truly a fun experience, as going to different conferences with your friends is really fun. I hope reading my post has encouraged you to join your school’s MUN!

-Sophia B.

Play With Earth! 0.03 Album Review

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The album play with earth! 0.03 by wave to earth was released on September 6th, 2024. The album consists of seven songs: are you bored?, play with earth!, annie., pueblo (remastered), beck, slow dive, and holyland. As a fan of wave to earth, I ranked the songs from my most favorite and my least favorite and the reasons why. 

  1. play with earth!

This song ranked 1 for me because I love how the song is energetic and hopeful! I really like how upbeat the song is and the song has a great meaning. The song gives me hope and brightens my day because when things might get rocky, the lyrics of the song tell people that they can just enjoy their time instead of thinking of the past or future. This meaning itself just makes the song way more meaningful for me because, as a person who often struggles with thinking about my past mistakes and getting worried about my future, I often don’t enjoy the present since I am too busy worrying about the past or the future, so this song just brings me to an awareness that I should enjoy the moment. 

  1. annie

This song was ranked at 2 for me because I like the vibe of the song, and although this is the first time I heard a curse word in their song, it makes the song better because it adds more emotion to the song. I also like how the meaning of the song shows how humble the band is. For example, several lyrics such as, “I already have everything for me,” show how they aren’t greedy and desire more recognition and fame and just appreciate it. 

  1. holyland

This song was ranked at 3 because this song makes me feel melancholy. I love the vocals in this song and the instrumentals. I like the lyrics, specifically the lyric “Can you settle down my soul?” because the way the singer sings it conveys strong emotions. I love that the song’s meaning is about nostalgia, longing, and connection and how the lyrics imply the longing for the memories they have made because I often have those same feelings of nostalgia for the memories I made. 

slow dive

  1. beck

This song was beautifully crafted, and I like how upbeat the song is but not too upbeat. The vocals and melodies in this song were brilliant as usual, and I really like the lyrics sang in this song. It’s a very peaceful song, and I definitely fell asleep to this song while it plays in my headphones. 

  1. slow dive

This song is such a masterpiece! I love the vibe of the song, and it’s the perfect song to listen to when doing anything. This song gets me in my feels since the song conveys lots of emotions, but it’s also very catchy. 

  1. pueblo (remastered)

The original song before the remastering was already good, but the remastered version makes the song significantly better. I love the song, and the ranking for this was particularly not because it was a bad song, but because I preferred the other songs more. I like how powerful the vocals are in this, and I like the instrumental of this song. 

  1. are you bored?

This song is at last in my ranking because I personally don’t like how it doesn’t have lyrics. The instrumentals are great, and this would be great for studying, but I feel like it would sound even better with vocals. 

This whole album of wave to earth was very catchy and has great songs, and I definitely recommend this album to those who just want to listen to something peaceful or chill while doing tasks or activities. You might just catch yourself getting drawn in by the beautiful songs created by wave to earth.

Listen to wave to earth on Freegal.

Deadpool and Wolverine

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I just went out to watch the Deadpool and Wolverine movie and I’ve got to say, I haven’t been this happy after a movie since Guardians and the Galaxy 3. It was an incredible movie that I fully enjoyed despite having never seen either of the two Deadpool movies or any of the X-Men movies.

The movie starts on Wade Wilson’s birthday after having given up his crime fighting career and has begun living the mundane life in trying to make something of himself. On that day, he is captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and is informed that his world is going to be destroyed. He wants to try and save his timeline from getting destroyed, but he can’t do it alone. He finds that the only person who can help him is Wolverine, so Wade hops throughout the multiverse to find a Wolverine. Together, they do their best to find a way home and save the world.

This movie was the best thing I’ve watched in a while. I haven’t felt so happy during and after watching it. I loved the jokes and fourth wall breaking that the Deadpool franchise is ultimately known for. I really laughed out loud in the theater with my friends as I watched, seeing the visual comedy and well timed cutscenes. There were also plenty of small, continued motifs that were sprinkled throughout the film that were fun to hear repeated. But while it was funny, the movie was also pretty heartfelt with some good character faults and issues. There were a lot of introspective scenes for both Deadpool and Wolverine which I found really interesting to see what they felt and how they overcame it all, even though they both could fight it off really easily. I really loved seeing how they came together and connected to each other, despite their disagreements and violent behaviors towards each other. 

Another thing about this movie was that the music choices were spectacular. It starred “Bye Bye Bye” from NSYNC, “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, and “You’re the One that I Want” from Grease; just to name a few. The music enhanced the movie so much more as it played throughout intense scenes. It made it feel so much cooler as it left me vibing and even feeling chills by the end. While the songs were fire, the awesome celebrity cameos this movie had were just as great. There were so many characters in this movie that allowed for even more fourth wall jokes and helped to keep the story entertaining. While they weren’t there for most of the movie, most were important to the plot and made the movie even more fun than if it were just Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (who are amazing on their own too).

Overall, the Deadpool and Wolverine movie was amazing. Everything about it was really enjoyable, but it definitely earns its mature rating with some of the jokes told and body horror on screen. This movie had me hooked and really gave me a fun time, laughing along and smiling happily. This movie is great even for those who haven’t seen previous Marvel movies in the chronological timeline. I would definitely recommend this movie to comedy lovers who are old enough to understand the jokes and who are looking for a good time.

-Nicole R.

The First Ladies By: Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies tells the story of two strong women in the 1900s: Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt. Mary born to formerly enslaved parents believed in the importance of education, as a result, she established a school for African American girls in Florida. In addition, she marches as an activist and educator and soon she grows into a celebrity and draws the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt. Drawn together by belief in the power of education, civil rights, and women’s rights. They begin to fight for change together after Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected as president of the U.S. Beginning a campaign of equality and justice these two women find themselves closer than ever. Eleanor quickly begins to formulate her own agenda away from her husband’s after discovering he has been having an affair. Quickly being considered a controversial First Lady due to her outspokenness for the issues she believes in. In response to her actions, she begins to receive death threats from those opposing her views.

I really like this book it combines drama and historical fiction which are two of my favorite genres. I also like how it really focused on how unique the friendship between these two women was, I thought it added a lot of depth. Another thing that I felt was very creative in this book was the switching of point of view, which gave a clear view of what the main characters were feeling and thinking. I also liked the fact that it was a fictionalized account of the real-life friendship between these two women. I have also read another of the author’s books, The Personal Librarian which was also really good so if you end up reading this one you should check it out.

Thank you for reading and Happy Reading!

The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Why Didi was not that great

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I went to watch Didi in the theaters the day it released because I was extremely excited to watch a coming of age film that was centered around the Asian-American experience. However, I left feeling disappointed at the lack of emphasis in relationships.

The blurb for this movie on Letterboxd describes it as an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom. Not only did he not learn to skate, flirt, he barely had a relationship with his mom who wrapped the movie up with a monologue that felt like the director wanted to have as much as an impact as Everything Everywhere all at Once did, but it was so badly written I was in awe when I opened imdb to find that it had a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than Everything Everywhere all at Once, albeit, with a much lower watch rate.

With classic coming to age stories like The Perks of being a Wallflower, Dead Poets Society, and Lady Bird, they center around relationships with siblings, parents, teachers, or peers their age. Watching Didi, I felt like all the relationships were superficial and it barely hit the rubric not only in depth but in creativity. Sean Wang had a great product to work with: Asian-American coming to age about self identity with being ashamed of culture or something along those lines and maybe I subconsciously was hoping for something similar to the graphic novel American Born Chinese. Only a few movies and stories come to mind that are able to hit that rubric where it becomes a staple for American Asians and conjoin the community over this representation. Now, just because the cast is entirely Asian does not mean the focus of the story needs to be about the Asian American experience but the topic was touched once and then never brought up again which felt like a cheat in my opinion. I understand why people like this film but again, everything was so sped up and topics were brushed by without saying anything of value.

Album Review: Pure Heroine

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Pure Heroine is the first album by New Zealand singer-songwriter, Lorde. With the eleventh-year anniversary of the record passing, I thought it would be cool to revisit this project. This album is unique for a pop album because it is not about love. Instead, Pure Heroine dives into topics like friendship, and growing up. Here are some standout tracks:

Royals: The radio hit from this record and the song that propelled Lorde into fame, “Royals” is an extremely well-written song about being a teen and not having the kind of money or problems that celebrities have. The instrumental consists of heavy snaps and layered backing vocals. It is a surprise that this song became so successful considering it came out during a time when Katy Perry’s love anthems ruled the radio. “Royals”, lyrically is the complete opposite and has a more laid-back and simple kind of production. 

Buzzcut Season: A truly endearing song about friendship and summer memories. The production includes a bright, almost hopeful-sounding keyboard. She sings about enjoying her life with her friends and making exciting memories, but at the end, it takes a sad turn as she says “I live in a hologram with you” explaining how now the fun times are over, and they will never be the same as they were.

Ribs: Possibly her most popular song on Spotify right now, “Ribs” is an endearing ballad about growing up. The song starts off with beautiful vocals being sung, which eventually form into the beat. The song reminisces about the good times of just laughing with your friends “until your ribs get tough”. As someone who is growing up right now, I found it to be a very relatable and interesting view on aging.

Glory and Gore: This song is a personal favorite of mine. The idea of “Glory and Gore go hand in hand” is very interesting. This is a great metaphor for fame as the benefits and the pains are often intertwined. The production continues in the same laid-back approach as the rest of the album but has this siren kind of sound in the second half. Her shouty vocals in the chorus add a catchy element to the song. 

Overall this is a fantastic record that really shaped the songwriter of artists in the years to come. While Lorde has not released many albums, Pure Heroine definitely has some incredible songs. I hope you enjoyed this album as much as I did.

No-bake banana coconut truffles

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When I went to Argentina (a country in South America) to visit relatives my cousin brought these truffles and shared the recipe. I have eaten them ever since! They are easy to prepare, full of protein, and overall delicious! As well as a perfect school snack, these truffles do not melt and require few ingredients! I hope you enjoy these yummy treats as much as I did! 😋

Ingredients:

2 mashed bananas

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 tblsp cocoa powder

1-11/2 cups shredded coconut + 1/2 cup shredded coconut for coating

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tblsp chia seeds

3 tblsp honey (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Mix all ingredients into a bowl. If your mixture has too much banana add more coconut to even it out.
  2. Let the bowl chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
  3. Once the mixture is ready, place the extra shredded coconut onto a small plate.
  4. Scoop mixture with your hands and form small balls. Roll them in the coconut until they are fully covered. Repeat rolling them in coconut until all the mixture is gone.
  5. Leave refrigerated until eaten.

If you are allergic to peanut butter, try using almond butter or any other nut butter. The honey is optional, and the walnuts are recommended. One of my favorite ways to eat these truffles are with smoothies. I also like to eat them as deserts after meals. This helps promote healthier eating habits.

I hope you enjoy the truffles!

What did you think of this recipe? Leave your comments below!

Hobbies To Try Before You Graduate

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  1. Start a side project: Sometimes time can get too busy, but it’s also important to support your hobbies and interests. A small side project can help you with this and cater to your interests.
  2. Join a club: It’s not too late to get involved or try something new on school campus. Joining a club can help you reconnect and meet others, so don’t be afraid or regret that you should have joined earlier. Joining right now can also be the perfect time.
  3. Playing games with friends and family: It could be simple board, card, word, or even video games. It’s best to make the most of the time you have together.
  4. Attending events: All schools have events like school dances and spirit weeks, but a lot of cities also organize events for residents. Check out the local events around you to reconnect with your community.
  5. Writing: Maybe it’s a letter to your future self in ten years. Maybe it’s a diary or a scrapbook that you can look back on to remember old memories. Either way it’s sure to bring nostalgia back to your future self.
  6. Cooking: It’s one of the most useful life skills to learn before graduation, and it’s also rewarding to eat and see your recipes come to life.
  7. Exploring different cuisines: There are countless different cultures out there, so why not take the time to explore them all? You can learn how to cook them (like in #5) or you could also explore and support local, small businesses.
  8. Learn a new talent: There’s always something, no matter how small, that you want to learn. It could be a magic trick, photography, drawing, literally anything! Learning a new skill can truly bring out a passion of yours that you didn’t know.
  9. Go somewhere new with your friends: Instead of just sticking to the usual campus and hang-out areas, explore or travel somewhere different and fun.
  10. Something new!!!: It could be small; it could be big. Sometimes just trying, despite what fears you may have, is the best way to go.

Ground Zero Novel Report

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Ground Zero is a book with heart pounding action from start to finish, written by none other than the award winning author Alan Gratz, who has written many other bestsellers including Refugee, Code of Honor, and much more.

The story of Ground Zero follows the lives of Brandon, a 9 year old 9/11 survivor living in Manhattan. It also follows the life of Reshmina, an 11 year old living in rural Afghanistan in 2019, whose village is devastated by war and chaos.

One morning, Brandon is suspended from school so he goes with his father to the World Trade Center, where he works. For a while, everything is going just fine. Then a plane strikes the building. Everybody goes into a panic trying to escape. But the plane crash separated Brandon and his father, and Brandon courageously travels up the building to find his dad, but will he succeed?

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, lives Reshmina and her family. Unfortunately for the village, American and Terrorist armies are at war in Afghanistan because of the 9/11 attack. One day, a battle takes place close to the village, and Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier from the battle. Reshmina learns that the soldier was blinded from the battle, and she reluctantly takes the soldier home… But what will happen next?

Gratz connects the dots between these two stories and intertwines them brilliantly throughout the entire novel, turning two small stories in to one amazingly crafted story with many revelations by the end.

I would recommend Ground Zero to any readers who have a passion for action packed and thrilling novels or to anyone who enjoys historic stories based on real events. If you want to read more about how Brandon and Reshmina’s stories unravel, then I would highly suggest purchasing and reading this amazing piece of literature.

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.