First Blog

Overall I thought Ironman was a very good book that brought up many issues faced by many teens today. I thought the letters to Larry King was a important part in the book because we got to see a lot of Bo’s thoughts when he was in that situation. Many of the characters had many family issues.
Bo’s issue was with his dad. I thought it was cruel when Bo missed Christmas because his dad wanted him to closed a door quietly. Bo’s dad didn’t help with their relationship when he gave a free Ultra-Lite to Wyrack and his buddies. Bo’s dad seemed like a mirror image to Mr. Redmond which probably didn’t help Bo out at all. Many of Bo’s anger issues seem to start from his father and move into other parts of his life.
Another one of Bo’s issues was Mr.Redmond who seemed like a real jerk. I mean I don’t know of any teachers that would start making fun of a kid’s name because he quit the football team. Of course I wouldn’t know because I’ve never played school football, but anyways I think Bo had every right to freak out at Mr. Redmond because I would have a hard time restraining myself if one of my teahcers started acting like Mr. Redmond. Hey, he helped Bo by giving something to use to push himself because Bo used his face to keep going till his body gave out.
The last issue Bo had to go through was the bullying by Wyrack. Although he never was hurt it was because Shelly whooped Wyrack who then in turn gave up on trying to stop Bo from beating him on the races. But without having to worry about Wyrack’s team in the triathalon then Bo wouldn’t have worked as hard as he did.
Many of the rest of the Nak Pak had many family issues too. Such as Mr. Nak who divorced his wife after killing his kids in a drunk driving accident.
Then there is Hudgie who has everything wrong with his family because his dad killed his dog, he gets burned by cigarettes and gets in trouble for hiding money.
Elvis has the hardest issue to go throught because unlike everyone else he has to become the father of the house after his dad ran away when Shuja’s sister sent a bullet and that scared Elvis’s dad so much he ran away. But I thought it was thoughtful of Shelly when she said she could help out with Elvis’s siblings because I don’t think anyone ever really helped Elvis out of a hard spot in his life so it came as a surprise to him too.
Shelly thought she could leave all the bad things at her old home behind but they followed her because of Mr. Redmond who did a background check and cut her from the basketball team. I thought she started solving her own problem by joining the Nak Pak unassisted. She said that other people need her help and so then she is going to help them out.