KSI English Student Work

By: Daniela Camargo Animals were born to be free! But instead we keep them in closed spaces like zoos. Zoos are a way of entertainment for people. They hold multiple animals, in order to exhibit them to the public. But some of the species in zoos are taken out of their natural habitat without any need. And this is not okay. We can not be selfish and put our own entertainment first. Animal rights are important and should be a priority. We are violating the animal’s right of freedom! I deeply believe zoos should no longer exist. Image: AVMA Studies have said that captive animals suffer from a mental disorder called zoochosis. This disorder causes animals to have uncommon behavior such as frustration since they do not have enough room to live. Animals in zoos live in jails. Also, confined animals get used to depend on people, as they do everything for them like providing them food. They forget about their natural tendencies and if the animal is returned to its natural habitat the...

Image: Carnivore and Vegetarian You definitely should try it By Carlos Andrés Méndez  Have you ever thought about going veggie? In trying something different? Well, this is time to give a yes for these questions. There are so many reasons to become a vegetarian. Some people choose to follow this type of diet due to becoming healthier, avoiding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or even because of more personal reasons such as religion, animal rights and environmental concerns. When you are completely sure about having this lifestyle you will have to choose which foods are you going to avoid and also come up with a plan to make sure that you receive all the nutrients and minerals your body needs. One of the best reasons to become a vegetarian is simply that you will do the earth a favor. The production of pollution will decrease. However, is not even 0,001% the change you will make because of the amount of people found on earth, but the change has to start somew...

Image: Encyclopedia Britannica Sofía Piña To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic American novel that most people read at least once in their lives. Some are forced to read it at school, some just tried it because of the recognition this book has. Nevertheless, most people who read it do because of the wrong reasons. They just don’t get it. How can someone not get the importance of this Pulitzer Prize winner? In a nutshell, To Kill a Mockingbird narrates the story of a family living in Alabama during the 1930s. This family is composed of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, and his children Scout and Jem Finch. The whole story focuses on how their sense of morality is challenged by society. This might seem a little boring at first and might be the reason why many don’t like it. But this book gives a crude understanding and a soulful consideration of the real value of society and real justice, and that is what is valued. When Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, an African-Ame...

Image: Amazon by Paula Blanco Did you know that in India widows are discriminated against and are a disgrace? Shouldn't we do something about it? Well we probably should if this were actually  true, but this is false, despite what the book Homeless Bird makes you think. However, I didn’t know anything about this small book before opening it, so I didn’t have many expectations. I knew it is a children’s book and most of the time this type of book doesn't deal with such serious issues. But I was intrigued by the peculiar name of this book, as it doesn’t sound like a children’s book at all. I didn’t expect what the story would really be about. As I started reading the first chapter, I was introduced to Koly, a 13-year-old girl from India, who was not shocked after finding out she was about to get married. She knew her parents didn't have money and they couldn’t handle having another mouth to feed. After this, she was introduced to her future husband who was...

Image: Wikipedia Min Seo Park Before reading Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower , I thought it would be like every other young adult romance book that’s not that memorable because of its predictable content. But this book left me with lessons about friendship and, obviously love, unusual lessons which you normally don’t find in other romance books, so this book may be “life-changing” to those who want to find their identity and show their true selves to others. The Perks.. was written in the form of letters from the main character, Charlie, to an unknown person (which may possibly be us readers). This book starts by showing how Charlie began to open up in his first sophomore year. When he attended his high school’s football game and searched for a seat, he spoke to himself s, aying, "Now, normally I am very shy, but Nothing seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to at a football game even though you were three years youn...

                                                        Image: Amazon Lauren Torres When I was in the middle of the book Five Feet Apart , I found myself wondering and questioning: Am I living my life the way I want to? Or am I too scared to take chances? I decided to read Five Feet Apart because of the hype it had in the past few months. Even though I was enthusiastic and curious about the book, I wasn’t expecting much: a typical romance novel for teenagers with not much to offer. However, I couldn't have been more wrong about it. I found something completely different and unique with a really strong and important message; stop being afraid of the what-ifs and take the chances life offers you. During the first few chapters we get to know our main characters; Stella and Will. Both of them are CF patients. CF stands for cy...

Image: Amazon.com Gabriela Chaparro While I was reading E. Lockhart’s book We Were Liars , I realized people can't hide who they really are. Even though they are always pretending, in the end the truth is going to come out. This novel demonstrates how different we behave when people are around, even though at the end everyone is going to find out who you really are. When I read the title “We Were Liars”, I was very curious about it. Why? Because the only thing I could think about was, there are a lot of things we can lie about. So what are these characters lying about? About their private lives? Their family? After reading the first few chapters I realized how humans are always pretending to be someone perfect, who have easy lives, all of this just to not be judged by society. Candace, a teenager who belongs to the Sinclair family, is the main character in this book, and she makes the affirmation her family is perfect by saying “Welcome to the beauti...

                                                       Image credit: Target.com Emily Torres Before choosing to read Kiera Cass’s book The Selection, I was extremely skeptical. I had heard about the book before since it is one of my friend’s favorite books. However, I assumed it was going to be a real cliché, cheesy story, just by looking at the cover. Yet, I decided to give it a chance, trusting my friend’s great reviews of the book and deciding to avoid that old cliché of judging a book by its cover. It was no surprise why this book was so famous. After all, it is about a really appealing theme for a teen audience. The story describes the life of a low-status woman named America Singer, who gets the chance to become the princess of Illea by participating in The Selection, a contest between several women who aim to get ma...

                                                        Image: Goodreads Juanita Amaya When I first started reading this book it didn’t make any sense. I wanted to stop reading it because I couldn't understand it. I couldn't understand how it worked, and how everything was organized, because I had never read a book like this. As I mentioned in the headline, it’s weird but in a good sense; once you start getting all of the family drama, it gets extremely interesting, and there’s something about how the story is written that makes it so simple yet so amusing. For example, the book never explicitly explained the family relationships, so they're all family: it starts with two siblings, the sister, Angela, and the brother, Richard. Angela is married to Dominic and they have 3 children, Alex, Daisy and Benjamin; Angela also ha...

                                                       Image: Amazon.com Luis Felipe Montoya Rodriguez "Have you ever read Nietzsche?" That is a question with a very bad reputation, especially among “edgy” teens. So, sadly, I'm going to ask you the same question. Have you ever read Nietzsche? Maybe you have or maybe not, but what books? Beyond Good & Evil is a book written by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1886. This book contains the early philosophical thoughts of Nietzsche in aphorisms. Thought not only requires time but study, and how much time was he studying philosophy? God knows. But it seems quite a long time; 42 years of life could easily be 32 years of philosophical experience. Coincidentally, Nietzsche was 42 years old when he wrote this masterpiece. Nietzsche expresses a variety of feelings that may confuse the reader; th...

Image: Book People Andres Jimenez This is a great book simply because you have everything a reader would want to read. When you read this, you can imagine each sequence. In this book, the great thing is the creativity Max Brooks provides because there are different perspectives on characters, political ideology problems, economic problems, and racial differences. There are so many things that we could compare zombies to a metaphor for humans with chaos.    Max Brooks is a bestselling author of World War Z . The first thing I want to highlight is the perspective the books give about some interesting survivors. In the book, they show a smuggler, a Chinese doctor, a special forces soldier, and a politician. These characters have different views of the zombie apocalypse. This can bring more enjoyment for the viewers and give us the chance to analyze much more than the apocalypse. The second topic I want to talk about is politics, because it is something that pe...