ideas (thoughtful and less so)

This is a book with pictures and interviews with a hundred young people across America that is supposed to represent a cross-section of the young American population. Full review on TBR once I’m done reading, but I just wanted to say here, that I am sad for the future of this country. Yes, there are some great people in here, some I’d love to know, but if this is accurate, then there are a lot more intolerant, stupid, superficial, bigoted, close-minded, shallow, ignorant people than I had previously believed, and that’s sad. I hope this book is wrong.

Every day during third lunch, we gather in the drama room. Outside of the drama room, some of us are best friends and some of us are no more than acquaintances. Before these gatherings, some of us didn’t even know the names of all the others. Most of us take drama, but not all. 

Every day during third lunch, we grab our food and sprawl out on the floor. We make ourselves comfortable and wonder, what is that odd mush on my lunch tray? We throw our backpacks, purses, and coats into a pile by the door, and we shut the door behind us, because we’re not supposed to take food outside of the cafeteria. 

Every day during third lunch, the drama room is not the drama room, but the gathering place for those of us with one thing in common: we’re Harry Potter fans! 

We’re a casual gathering, not an official book club. We discuss the books and argue about the characters. We have trivia battles. We talk and laugh until the bell rings and signals us to move on to fourth period. 

We don’t all fit into any established social group. As much as our lunchtime activities might suggest it, we certainly wouldn’t all be called nerds. We may or may not speak outside of that room, but we are together inside of it. And such is the power of good books!