Words on Bathroom Walls

Words on Bathroom Walls is an American drama (2020) about a teenager named  Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) who suffers from schizophrenia. He moves to a new school after a psychotic break which leaves him alienated from his peers.

 Adam’s constant companions are his imaginary friends Rebecca (Anna Sophia Robb ) a hippy who wants him to be in tune with his feelings,  the bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian)  who protects him, Joaquin ( Devon Bostick) a sleazy bro and the darkness (Jared Bankins) a dark mist of negative energy.

Adam tries his best to ignore his imaginary people as they hinder him from being present in his everyday life. Adam is able to relax from his mental illness when he’s cooking. His dream is to go to culinary school to become a chef. He makes a friend at his new school called Maya (Taylor Russel) who has her own secrets.

I enjoyed watching this movie and thought it handled the subject matter sensitively. I hadn’t thought about schizophrenia before and how it could affect a young person. In the movie, Adam tries his best to ignore his delusions, but the other characters can see that he’s distracted. I can see how difficult it would be to ignore delusions and pretend that everything is okay. It would also be difficult forming relationships because you would be worried if they will accept you.

I thought the performances in this movie were wonderful. Charlie Plummer played Adam with a realistic vulnerability and had great chemistry with the rest of the cast. All the characters were complex and played brilliantly by the actors. Taylor Russel and Charlie Plummer had great chemistry.

I think this movie would be suitable to watch with family with older children or teenagers. As an educator, I would suggest it for a book and film study for English or wellbeing course.  

X0 Kitty

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

XO Kitty is a spin off series from the movie series, To all the boys that I loved. The series stars  Anna Cathcart as Kitty, a Korean American who goes to boarding school in Korea. She goes to boarding school to learn to learn more about her deceased mother who went to the school and be with her long-term boyfriend Dae-heon Kim (Choi Min-young).

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It’s a cute series that’s perfect for binge watching.  I love stories where the characters are in boarding school. I think it’s something about being with your friends 24/7 and being independent at a young age. It’s fantasy viewing with the eye candy cast members and cool clothes.  

 The only criticism that I have is that the series had the ‘I can explain trope’ where there’s a big problem and one of the characters refuses to listen. All their problems would be solved if they would hear them out instead of storming off.

I’m not sure if there’s going to be season 2 but I will watch it if comes out. 

June Happenings

Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Life

My life has changed so much since I last wrote a blog post. For starters, I have moved back to my hometown, and I have a new job. I teach at the local school. It’s been a bit of learning curve for me as all schools have different ways of doing things. I also had some high behaviours in the class which made me rethink my decision to move back home. Thankfully, I have supportive admin who were able to help me, and the class is going as it should.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Watching

I’m currently binge-watching Sea Change. It’s an Australian tv show from 1998-2000. Sigrid Thornton stars as Laura Gibson, a city lawyer who moves to a small coastal town to be the magistrate. She must deal with adjusting to life at a slower pace and the kooky town folk. I can relate to being in a small town, having lived in a few of them. I would agree that there’s never a dull moment in a small town. I also get nostalgia from looking at old fashion and technology.

 

Reading

I’m still reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke which Jon gave me for my birthday last year. It’s an interesting story. It’s about this man named Piranesi who lives in this strange endless house which he believes is the world and there are marble statues everywhere. The only interaction he gets is from another man who is called the Other.  

 

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Carlyn's Diary: January 2022

 

Life

My best friend is getting married! I’m a bridesmaid and helping her with the wedding. She’s still in the early stages of planning. It’s been fun looking at dresses and shoes. I’m currently thinking about what to include in my bridesmaid’s speech.

 

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Reading

I am reading Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer. It’s a retelling of the book Twilight by Stephanie Myer from Edward’s perspective. I like the different perspective as it adds more to the original story.

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I have also subscribed to Audible and I have listened to many novels. It’s a great way to catch up on books. I like to listen to audible when I’m doing chores. The book I’m currently listening to is I can’t make this up by Kevin Hart and Neil Strauss.

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Watching

I’m loving The Princess Switch movies starring Vanessa Hudgens. Vanessa Hudgens plays three characters, Princess Stacey, Queen Margaret and Miss Fiona Pemberly who all look alike and switch places a lot. The Princess Switch is a fun Christmas movie. If I were a kid, I’d probably watch it nonstop.

The Babysitter’s Club BSC Forever : Everything Changes by Ann Martin

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I’m obsessed with The Babysitter’s Club series. When I was a little girl, I thought they were the coolest books ever. I always look for the old books when I’m in a thrift shop. The series has been republished but I like the old books from my childhood. I have a big collection of Babysitters Club books and I hope to collect them all. I haven’t read all of them yet.

The BSC Forever series is a spinoff of The Babysitter’s Club which focuses more on the girls rather than babysitting. This series also concludes The Babysitter’s Club story, with the girls moving on to high school having other interests. This book is a special edition where there are several story lines, told in letter, email and diary format by different characters.

The book is set during summer vacation and the girls don’t babysit in this book. Kristy is at summer camp, Maryanne is at home, Claudia goes to Monhegan island with her family and Stacey goes to New York to spend time with her dad. The other babysitter club members are mentioned but don’t feature much in this book.

I don’t think this special was as good as others in the series. The characters usually are more connected and communicate with each other more. In this book, the characters mostly interact with their closest friends rather than as a whole group.

Kristy

Kristy’s story was mostly told through diary format and letters. I didn’t like the diary format because of the abbreviations. In a diary, Kristy abbreviates her friends names and as A. for Abby, MA for Maryanne. I understand that it makes the diary entries more authentic because diaries entries are meant to be a stream of thoughts. You might shorten things to save time or use code words for secrecy.

Kristy’s storyline was about her dismay about The Babysitters Club falling apart. In the book, several characters want to pull out of The Babysitter’s Club to focus on other interests.

Claudia

The story I did enjoy was Claudia visiting Monhegan island with her family. Monhegan Island is located near Maine. It’s a small little island know for its artists colonies and fishing. I liked reading the descriptions of the island and how Claudia was enjoying hiking, painting, and drawing.

Stacey

Stacey is New York to spend time with her father as her parents are divorced. She’s 13 and dating someone who is 15. The dad doesn’t like the age difference and her father doesn’t want her to spend too much time with him. I thought there would be more fighting about this but Stacey handles it maturely.

Maryanne

Maryanne is living with her family in a temporary place since their house burnt down. Her grandmother comes to stay with the family. Maryanne is also feeling smothered by her boyfriend Logan for trying to support her.  It was a little tedious reading Maryanne’s storyline. Maryanne is a very timid character, and she doesn’t resolve anything by the end of the book.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - book review by Carlyn

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Eleanor and Park is a coming-of-age story set in the late 80s. The teenagers meet on the bus on Eleanor’s first day of school. She is the weirdest girl that Park has ever seen, and the other kids aren’t kind to her. Park lets her sit with him begrudgingly and over time they form a relationship.

Eleanor and Park come from different backgrounds but share a love of comics, music and science fiction. Park is half Korean American and lives with a loving family while Eleanor is the eldest in a large and poor family.    

The couple overcome many obstacles to be together. Eleanor is bullied at school for dressing weird, being overweight and poor. While Park struggles with being a minority, fitting in at school and his relationship with his dad.

I had read so many reviews about this book when it first debuted. It’s a book that I had wanted to read for a long time. I was interested in the book because I learnt that the protagonists were different to the norm. Eleanor is plus sized, and I hadn’t heard of many books that had a plus sized heroine. In addition, Park is half Korean and half Caucasian. The book chapters also alternate point of view between Park and Eleanor.

I’m Asian and plus sized so I was very interested in reading this book. I could empathize with the characters. I grew up in a very white neighborhood and there were very few Asian people represented in the media at the time. I wish there were books like this one to read when I was younger.  I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Young Adult fiction.

Mary Anne and the Memory Garden by Ann M. Martin

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The Babysitters Club is a series of books about a group of girls who babysit. It was published in 1986-2000 and there are over 100 books, including spin offs of the original series and film and television adaptations. The Babysitters Club books follow the lives of the girls. They have normal issues like friendship dramas, romances, worrying about school and babysitting. There are also books which feature more sensitive or heavier themes or topics. For example, there are books on racism, ableism, dealing with medical issues such as diabetes and asthma.

This book was written in response to fans writing to Ann. Martin about how to deal with losing people and drink driving. I think Ms. Martin handles the matter sensitively in a way that will engage with young readers. 

In this book, Mary Anne grieves over her friend Amelia, who died in a car crash. Amelia’s family was driving home and hit by a drunk driver. Mary Anne becomes overwhelmed and unsure what to do. Fortunately, she goes to a therapist to help her cope. I liked how the books illustrated grief and that Mary Anne recognized that she needed more help.

The Babysitters grieve in their own way. Kristy is overwhelmed and channels her grief in starting a chapter of the organization called Students Against Drunk Drivers which is a real organization. The organization was started in 1986 but is now called Students against destructive decisions https://www.sadd.org/ .

I have been a fan of The Babysitter’s Club since I was a child. I’ve been collecting the books and this was the first time I read this story. Reading these books makes me nostalgic. The book that I have is second hand and there is a little page there is a little questionnaire page that readers can fill out. The page had been filled out by an eleven-year-old girl named Johanna in 1996. I hope she enjoyed the book as much as I did.