Left-Handed Stories High School Book Report
A high-school student named Katie from New Mexico emailed me this book report she wrote on Left-Handed Stories for her 10th Grade English class. Super funny.
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Katie X
English 10. Per 3
September 27, 2006
Left-Handed Stories
Travis Jensen
Hi, I’m Katie X and I chose to read the book “Left-Handed Stories” by Travis Jensen for my book review. This book was written in 2004. Besides “Left-Handed Stories” Travis has only wrote one other book called, “No Comply: Skateboarding Speaks on Authority.” The genre of this book would have to be urban short stories. The topic would be growing up in America and the main conflict would be dealing with youth in America growing up in big cities. “Left-Handed Stories” is made up of a series of short stories that takes the reader and shows them personal intelligence of a new young writer with humor and all over characterizations that also ties in with his own use of street savvy.
The first story I read is called, Rubin Grimes, Levi Crocket, and Me. In this story Travis Jensen places himself in 1st person, referring himself as, Me. Furthermore, this story is about three high school boys who decided to get involved with drugs, rather then do well in school. One day Travis came back from school with a failed algebra test. His parents immediately thought he was on some sort of drugs, which then resulted in them giving him a drug test. They told him if he didn’t pass it they are going to send him to boarding school. The next day Travis told his friends Rubin and Levi about his parents drug testing him, they said their parents are doing the same. Later that night with out question they immediately bought a bottle of liquid bleach and a carton of orange juice, mixed it together and drank as much as they could without killing themselves. This resulted in getting them drug free, but terribly ill. A few days later Travis got tested, passed, and was relieved that he didn’t have to go to boarding school. The next day Travis told Levi and Rubin the good news, surprisingly all of them passed and none of them had to leave. Later that night, they all when back to Rubin’s house, laughed together, and smoked a joint.
(Pg.59) “I could feel the bleach burning my throat as it went down. I puked, Levi puked. My lungs felt like they were on fire.”
The next story I read is called, Sunshine and Rain. This story is about a day in the life of a man named Walter. Walter is basically your typical busy, and depressed business man who works in a downtown law firm. It was a beautiful sunny day, Walter unexpectedly woke up in a good mood. He got up for work with no complaints, and even decided to dress nice. He pulled out his best outfit and put it on. Before leaving he grabbed his laptop computer; not for work, but for extra cool points he gets from the ladies when he’s waiting at the bus stop. When the bus came up he let everyone one else board before him. He felt so confident, so good looking, nothing could possibly go wrong. He then boarded the bus last: up the first step, up the second step, but as he moved his leg up to the third step his right foot got caught on the dangling shoulder strap off his computer bag. He definitely knew now he was going to fall. Finally falling forward, Walter smashed his face on the dirty floor of the bus. His mouth became numb, all he could taste was blood. Walter then ran back home, in tears. He was so embarrassed that he never road that bus ever again. In fact he changed his whole routine of going to work. When he got home it started raining. It rained the whole day.
(Pg.137) “He sat and relayed the situation over in his head. How humiliating, he thought, dabbing the towel on his mouth, which was now completely soaked in blood.”
The last story I read was personally my favorite. It is called, The Trumpet Player. The Trumpet Player is about a homeless man who has been living on the streets of San Francisco for 22 years and the only way of making a living is playing his trumpet on different street corners to make some spare change. One day while walking to a near by liquor store he noticed a badly malnutrition women sitting on a old milk crate. “She was wrapped in a wool blanket with a red scarf wrapped around her neck.” He (the homeless man) was usually very familiar with other homeless people around the city, but however he has never seen this women in his life. He decides to walk over there and ask her if she wanted to go walk on the pier with him. She agreed. With the money he earned from playing his trumpet he treated her to Burger king. After that they went to go buy another bottle of cheap liquor. Later that night he asked her is she had any arranged sleeping spot, she said no. He then asked if she wanted to stay with him for the night. She, apprehensively said sure. They eventually fell asleep in the doorway of a old cafe, holding hands, and slowly falling in love.
(Pg.128) “Well I’ll be damned, there really is someone out there for everyone.”
I definitely enjoyed reading this book for many different reasons. One of the reasons is unlike other authors Travis tells these stories with the realness and actuality of peoples situations. I also really liked this book for its immodest glimpse into real life and the grungy city life.
I’d recommend this book to any teen or young adult who could relate to its urban tales of mischief, lust, passion, and even some anger.
***
Katie X
English 10. Per 3
September 27, 2006
Left-Handed Stories
Travis Jensen
Hi, I’m Katie X and I chose to read the book “Left-Handed Stories” by Travis Jensen for my book review. This book was written in 2004. Besides “Left-Handed Stories” Travis has only wrote one other book called, “No Comply: Skateboarding Speaks on Authority.” The genre of this book would have to be urban short stories. The topic would be growing up in America and the main conflict would be dealing with youth in America growing up in big cities. “Left-Handed Stories” is made up of a series of short stories that takes the reader and shows them personal intelligence of a new young writer with humor and all over characterizations that also ties in with his own use of street savvy.
The first story I read is called, Rubin Grimes, Levi Crocket, and Me. In this story Travis Jensen places himself in 1st person, referring himself as, Me. Furthermore, this story is about three high school boys who decided to get involved with drugs, rather then do well in school. One day Travis came back from school with a failed algebra test. His parents immediately thought he was on some sort of drugs, which then resulted in them giving him a drug test. They told him if he didn’t pass it they are going to send him to boarding school. The next day Travis told his friends Rubin and Levi about his parents drug testing him, they said their parents are doing the same. Later that night with out question they immediately bought a bottle of liquid bleach and a carton of orange juice, mixed it together and drank as much as they could without killing themselves. This resulted in getting them drug free, but terribly ill. A few days later Travis got tested, passed, and was relieved that he didn’t have to go to boarding school. The next day Travis told Levi and Rubin the good news, surprisingly all of them passed and none of them had to leave. Later that night, they all when back to Rubin’s house, laughed together, and smoked a joint.
(Pg.59) “I could feel the bleach burning my throat as it went down. I puked, Levi puked. My lungs felt like they were on fire.”
The next story I read is called, Sunshine and Rain. This story is about a day in the life of a man named Walter. Walter is basically your typical busy, and depressed business man who works in a downtown law firm. It was a beautiful sunny day, Walter unexpectedly woke up in a good mood. He got up for work with no complaints, and even decided to dress nice. He pulled out his best outfit and put it on. Before leaving he grabbed his laptop computer; not for work, but for extra cool points he gets from the ladies when he’s waiting at the bus stop. When the bus came up he let everyone one else board before him. He felt so confident, so good looking, nothing could possibly go wrong. He then boarded the bus last: up the first step, up the second step, but as he moved his leg up to the third step his right foot got caught on the dangling shoulder strap off his computer bag. He definitely knew now he was going to fall. Finally falling forward, Walter smashed his face on the dirty floor of the bus. His mouth became numb, all he could taste was blood. Walter then ran back home, in tears. He was so embarrassed that he never road that bus ever again. In fact he changed his whole routine of going to work. When he got home it started raining. It rained the whole day.
(Pg.137) “He sat and relayed the situation over in his head. How humiliating, he thought, dabbing the towel on his mouth, which was now completely soaked in blood.”
The last story I read was personally my favorite. It is called, The Trumpet Player. The Trumpet Player is about a homeless man who has been living on the streets of San Francisco for 22 years and the only way of making a living is playing his trumpet on different street corners to make some spare change. One day while walking to a near by liquor store he noticed a badly malnutrition women sitting on a old milk crate. “She was wrapped in a wool blanket with a red scarf wrapped around her neck.” He (the homeless man) was usually very familiar with other homeless people around the city, but however he has never seen this women in his life. He decides to walk over there and ask her if she wanted to go walk on the pier with him. She agreed. With the money he earned from playing his trumpet he treated her to Burger king. After that they went to go buy another bottle of cheap liquor. Later that night he asked her is she had any arranged sleeping spot, she said no. He then asked if she wanted to stay with him for the night. She, apprehensively said sure. They eventually fell asleep in the doorway of a old cafe, holding hands, and slowly falling in love.
(Pg.128) “Well I’ll be damned, there really is someone out there for everyone.”
I definitely enjoyed reading this book for many different reasons. One of the reasons is unlike other authors Travis tells these stories with the realness and actuality of peoples situations. I also really liked this book for its immodest glimpse into real life and the grungy city life.
I’d recommend this book to any teen or young adult who could relate to its urban tales of mischief, lust, passion, and even some anger.
