Standing Against the Wind

Standing Against the Wind is a great, simple story which is easy to understand. I love how the story is from Patrice's point-of-view. It is perfect for junior high students, especially since they can relate to being picked on whether it has been themselves as the target or picking on someone else. The vocabulary throughout the book is not too challenging, yet the dialogue may be hard to follow if students are not aware of that kind of speaking.The descriptions and comparisons of characters between objects and objects between other objects are great. For example, in Chapter 1, Jones compares the January wind to a bunch of icy, sharp fingers: "The January wind blew directly into Patrice's face. It seemed to reach right through her coat's thin fabric and under her hand-me-down sweatshirt, and pinch her arms with icy, sharp fingers." Further in Chapter 1, Monty asks Patrice to come to his apartment because he has a favor to ask of her. Patrice's emotion of relief when asked to help Michael, Monty's brother, with homework is described so well: "Patrice glanced from Michael to Monty and felt relief flood through her body." That sentence allows you to visualize the relief she felt after a few minutes of feeling nervous and sick to her stomach. In Chapter 2 (p.29), Jones mentioned Raven, a girl that goes to Patrice's school. It was neat how she explained that Raven fit her name. Raven became a metaphor when she was given the same characteristics as the Raven bird: "Raven was a big black girl with little eyes and a harsh voice. She always seemed to hover around the edges of a conversation, picking up bits of gossip and spitting out the information to anyone who would listen....ravens were known for eating dead bodies after battles and were sometimes associated with death and disaster. With her nasty habit of spreading gossip, even if it hurt other people, Raven was just like the bird."You can feel the tension and irritation Patrice has with her sister throughout the book. Cherise is one who focuses on herself, leaving everyone else out of the picture. Students could relate to this sibling relationship. Not everyone has a closeness with their brothers or sisters and can feel irritation as Patrice does when their brother or sister enters the room.I thought the conversation between Patrice and her sister in Chapter 7 was a great change to the events of the story. We see a different side to Cherise than what Patrice has described to us. We see more of a sister relationship between the two girls where Patrice feels comfortable talking about more personal things that are going on in her life, such as her friendship with Monty, her brother in juvenile boot camp, and applying for the Dogwood Academy scholarship. It was neat how Cherise encouraged the application to Dogwood thinking that it will be good for Patrice to get out of their aunt's house so that their aunt can take care of things herself and drop her second job.Finally, I love how I can feel the emotions Patrice experiences throughout the book. Her relationship with Monty grows so much from Chapter 1 to Chapter 17 and you can experience each emotion of Patrice with every single event that takes place.