Tagged: social issues

Social Issues Book, The Graduation of Jake Moon by Barbara Park

In the book, The Graduation of Jake Moon by Barbara Park, Jakes grandfather, Skelly, unfortunately, gets Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a disease where the person with the disease forgets most things. This causes Jake to change his actions and change his lifestyle.

A way that this challenge affects Jake’s interaction with the world is that he is very embarrassed to bring his friends over because he is afraid that Skelly will do something super embarrassing. He doesn’t even want them to call him because he is afraid that Skelly will pick the phone up. For example, the story states that when Jake was making a new friend, he invited him over to a sleepover. When the kid came they were having a good time but when Skelly was on his way to the shower he heard them talking and came in. The only thing is is that he wasn’t wearing pants! Not even underwear! This made Jake feel super uncomfortable and frustrated. I would feel the same way.

A way that Skelly getting Alzheimer’s disease affects Jake being alone is he just wants to think about his life without anyone disturbing him. As an example, when Jake goes to the restaurant with Skelly he sees two popular girls. Then he decides he doesn’t want to be seen with Skelly so he tries to walk home. On his way out he trips and the girl sees that Skelly is his grandpa. At that moment Jake wants to be alone so he runs home. On his way home he sees Skelly’s babysitter and she won’t leave Jake alone, Jake was just trying to think about what happened. I think if I was Jake I would be frustrated because if I just wanted to be alone and think about my situation I wouldn’t want anyone to be annoying me even more.

Overall, I think that even though Jake went through hard times he learned to push through the challenge and at the end of the story Jake realizes that Skelly should be important in his life and should see the big things that Jake goes through even if Skelly forgets them.