Befriending Barbie

Shari Caudon's "Befriending Barbie" from all the story we have read, I have to say that this has to be my favorite story. This story really surprised the hell out of me. At first I thought the story was going to be boring and just talk about the Barbie Convention and how it works, but was I wrong! I totally fell in love with story because of the characters. The Barbie people were beautiful people. We need more Barbie people in the world. I loved the way that Caudon made her meaning making. She was missing something and in the most unexpected place she came to realize that Barbie is not only a toy or doll to these people. Barbie creates a community and helps people in their everyday life to cope with issues. I loved Judy Stegner her story made me cry and that is what I think made this story work because it touched the reader on an emotional level. It was not only a description of what was happening at the convention but we actually got to be there with these people and experience their joy with them.
"I put down the bottle of water I've been holding. 'What do you mean,' I ask, "that you couldn't have made it without them?"
Judy exhales. "Well," she says, "maybe you heard about this. In September 1999, there was a shooting at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth in which several kids were killed."
I tell her vaguely recall the story about the man who entered the church during a youth rally and randomly started shooting.
"That's the one," she says. "He murdered seven people that day, including my son Justin. " Judy's brown eyes grow pink with tears. "He was my only child." (Pg.67)

The story had a depth and truth to it that Caudron captured beautifully. Just like Barbie each Barbie collector and fanatic was unique in their own way, but held one thing in common their love for Barbie. Barbie gave them something they were missing in their lives. I also loved the Black Barbie collector Brenda Blanchard because of her creativity she like so many made Barbie an art form. Barbie is forever a memory that is embedded in our minds for those who have and still have Barbies it is a phase in ones life that one can look back and those moments can be relived. Overall, I love the whole story.

The Search for Marvin Gardens

In "The Search for Mavin Garden," the author John McPhee is in search of the real Mavin Gardens like the one in Monopoly. He goes to Atlantic City and he goes to all the places on the board of Monopoly. It was so interesting that McPhee included actual history of how Monopoly was created. I would have never even thought that Monopoly was based on real life places and the whole economic system is crazy to me. I mean that in a good way because I have never playd Monopoly right because I am no good at math, but to know that the percentages of buying houses and property and paying for land is absolutely crazy because it is real. I liked tghe format of the story of how McPhee would go from the game to the actual location back and forth. I thought it was interesting that he had such an obession, but did not just let it be an obession he turned it into a journey to find Marvin Gardens. I love the description of the Avenues because it was so different from what I thought it was going to be. I thought that the Avenues would all be posh and expensive, but come to find out they are mostly poor and broken down.
"On Illionis Avenue, three men lean out from a second-story windows. A girl is coming down the street. She wears dungarees and a bright-red shirt, has ample breasts and a Hadendoan Afro, a black halo, two feet in diameter. Ice rattles in the glasses in the hands of the men." (Pg. 187)
I love the description, the people and to actual hear the city alive. It also amazed me the Marvin Gardens is not an actual avenue, but is instead a place that is hidden and is not actually a certain location, but a suburb and hard as it is to find it, it is hard to live there too. I find that fascinating that only the rich can live there and most the other locations are poor. I liked this story a lot it kept my attention throughout and covered a lot. Good story to read for Non Fiction!