Armchair BEA – Day 4: Beyond The Borders

BEYOND THE BORDERS

It’s time to step outside your comfort zone, outside your borders, or outside of your own country or culture. Tell us about the books that transported you to a different world, taught you about a different culture, and/or helped you step into the shoes of someone different from you. What impacted you the most about this book? What books would you recommend to others who are ready or not ready to step over the line? In essence, let’s start the conversation about diversity and keep it going! 

Last year for English, my class read Waiting For The Rain by Sheila Gordon. It is about two young boys and their struggle through the Apartheid in Africa. Before reading this book I knew little of what had happened in Africa, honestly the word Apartheid was new to me. I knew who Nelson Mandela was, but I never knew exactly what he had done. This book brought me into the shoes of both a boy struggling to make way as a kaffir and another young boy on the opposite end struggling with the Apartheid. This book changed my outlook on Africa forevermore.

Another book I read, The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, brought the awareness of all the problems a person with cancer faces, and not just of the physical kind. It made me take a second look on how I viewed the world. It made me not know what to do or how to react to a person undergoing chemotherapy; is this an act of pity, do they want my pity? Overall, this book made me think, and that is what was special about it.

Both of these books I would recommend to someone looking for diversity, whether in race or in health, these two books are excellent examples.