Outside Reading: Day 3

Since I began reading ahead a bit in my reading schedule, this reading was fairly short. Nevertheless, this section is full of excitement, and twist and turns. Throughout the book, one of the plots/Sam's underlying struggles is with a girl, name Naomi. In the first few chapters of the book she is introduced to Sam while running. Sam, being his clumsy self made an interesting first impression, which I will leave to you to find out for yourself by reading Jerk, California. The section that I read has to do with a run in Sam has with Naomi (Earlier in the book it establishes that these two have a thing for each other). I enjoyed this section particularly because each time Sam runs into Naomi; a quintessential mistake is made by Sam, making him look "dorky". This time, he ended up saving Naomi from a minor car accident, but it was winter, and her car was trapped in the ditch. To add to the danger of this, Naomi and her friends, being classified (by me) as a popular preppy type, weren't wearing adequate clothing, so they could have potentially gotten very sick due to the temperature. The author, Jonathan Friesen, does a good job at adding humor, while sustaining a tone appropriate for a young adult’s book. In other words, Friesen didn’t add sophomoric humor or humor that just doesn't fit our age group. He also doesn't let things progress too quickly between Sam and Naomi; this scene in the winter was going pretty well, until Sam made one of his mistakes, which he recovered from, then some school bullies came around. In the end of this situation, Sam is left with a kiss on the cheek, “warming” him up in the cold of Minnesota.