My Favorite Book of All Time

My favorite book of all time is Black Box by Julie Schamcher. This is my favorite book because it is a book that really opened my eyes to many things, like depression, friendship, and family. Black Box is a book that everyone can relate to, whether it is for teens, or adults, everyone can say, "I went through that too." In this book, a girl named Dora is depressed, but instead of mostly focussing on her, the author focuses on her family and how they have to get through it. It shows how her little sister, Elena, has to pretend to be happy, she has to keep her head up and say to herself that everything is going to be okay, to not make anyone worried about her. In my opinion everyone has had to do that once in their life. Something goes bad, and everyone around them is asking if they are okay, but you have to force a smile and say everything will be okay.

Black Box is also my favorite book because it opened my eyes to things I would have never thought of before. The book shows how little family problems can affect a lot in a family, and they don't even know anything
is changing. The book has Dora and Elena's parents are fighting over money, and about Dora. Elena gets greatly affected by her parents fighting, she feels like her family is breaking apart, but she doesn't say anything to anyone. She keeps it all bottled up inside. This opened my eyes to how little problems, whether they be, family problems or friendship problems, they can really affect how someone feels and acts, and they may not tell anyone how they truly feel. Another problem Elena has to face is friendship. She moves to a new town and has no friends, when a classmate, Jimmy, hears about her sister being sent to a mental hospital, he starts asking Elena a whole bunch of questions and he keeps telling her that, that hospital is dangerous, it changes the kids going in. Jimmy gives Elena his 'brother's experience, saying that his 'brother' went to that hospital and was never the same again. He tells her to be careful about her sister because his brother cut while he was in the hospital and he would hate for that to happen to her sister. Towards the end, Elena finds out that Jimmy was lying about his brother going to the hospital, it was Jimmy who went, he was telling Elena his story. This had shocked Elena, and for the first time ever she cried. She cried and told Jimmy everything, how she felt, what was happening, and how she couldn't deal with it anymore. The book showed me how friends and family members might be going through something really bad and don't want to say anything, but you need to be by their side either way.

Black Box is a book that I would recommend to everyone, my family, teachers and friends. It really is a book that will change how you look at everything. It is a life changing story.