ClubPatel's Journal #1

Dear Readers,

I would like to start this first journal off with a summary of chapters 1 through 8. In these chapters we see a young girl named Novalee Nation going and facing through many obstacles. Novalee Nation who is seven months pregnant at seventeen and is superstitious girl about sevens gets dumped by her boyfriend Willy Jack Pickens at Wal-Mart leaving her with nothing. As Willy Jack goes to pursue his music dreams, Novalee all alone is facing many problems, like finding a place to sleep.

Throughout the day a woman named Sister Husband approaches Novalee calling her Ruth Ann, then gives a gift basket full of items as Novalee tries to tell her she is not Ruth Ann. Novalee then takes a photograph of Sister Husband. Novalee now meets with Moses Whitecotton, who tells Novalee that picking a name for her child should not be rushed into and that it should be a strong name that can withstand a lot of bad times. Again, Novalee takes a photograph of Moses Whitecotton. After all this Novalee meets a young boy named Benny Goodluck who tells Novalee that the plant he is holding is called a buckeye tree and it gives good luck. Novalee’s wish was to personally have the buckeye tree so that she can have a lot of good fortune for the upcoming days, and so Benny had given the tree and Novalee had taken his photograph.

Weeks past and Novalee’s tree is dying, therefore she tries to look for a book on how to save her buckeye tree. This led her to meet Forney the librarian who gives Novalee her first birthday dinner and party. Novalee was told by Sister Husband that Forney’s sister Mary Elizabeth Hull was an alcoholic and was originally the librarian. During the week of Novalee’s birthday, she was feeling her pregnancy effects coming along. And right there at Wal-Mart Forney helped deliver Novalee’s baby. After looking at her baby, Novalee had decided to name her Americus, a strong name that withstands a lot of bad times and a lot of hurt.

All I can say is that I felt a lot of emotions reading through chapters one through eight. I was shocked that Willy Jack Pickens had left Novalee at Wal-Mart, but at the same I time I figured he would’ve done that long time ago because she was so annoying in the car always wanting to go pee and she was just a lot to take care of. My other emotion was happiness when Willy Jack had gotten arrested; it just shows how ‘karma’ can really come back to you when you do bad. When Novalee’s luck changed after getting the buckeye tree, it really made me feel superstitious about little things like that. I was also shocked at the very end of chapter eight when Novalee named her baby Americus; I was not expecting a name like Americus…

So far on the first part of the book I saw only one social issue and it was teenage pregnancy. The two people that are involved in this social issue are Novalee Nation and Willy Jack Pickens. The author really shows how bad teen pregnancy is and how it will turn out when you don’t have the right education and money.

These are two words I did not understand while reading the first eight chapters of the book and after looking up the definition of the words. [http://dictionary.reference.com/]

→ Burlap; [pg.63] a plain-woven, coarse fabric of jute, hemp, or the like; gunny.

→ Coalesce; [pg. 75] to blend or come together: Their ideas coalesced into one theory.