ELA READING RESPONSE
     In my book, Scat, by Carl Hiaasen is about a kid named Nick. His teacher Ms. Starch goes missing in the middle of a field trip to the Black Vine swamp. She goes missing while there's a wildfire and there's a whole investigation to find out what happened to her. The day before the trip she gets into an argument with a student named Duane Scrod Jr. aka. Smoke. The police believe that he's an arsonist. During the investigation the firemen find out that the fire was man made and was an arson. They immediately expect that it was Duane because he tried to burn down a billboard a long time ago. They just assume it was him without any actual evidence, which is unfair. Duane's opinion is not voiced in this book, no one knows how he feels.
     In my book Duane Scrod Jr. (Smoke), is suspected to have created the wild fire in the Black Vine Swamp as payback at Ms. Starch. No one has any actual evidence, but everyone assumes it's him. This is unfair to Duane, and we don't hear his opinion on what he thinks. He tells the cops that he didn't do it, they act like they believe him, but they really don't. Duane already doesn't have a chance because of what he did in the past. When he was younger he tried to burn down a billboard. Nobody will believe Smoke because everyone is scared of him and the cops think he's a bad one. A man who works for the Red Diamond Oil Company gives false evidence to cover himself up because he started the fire. The author gets the reader to feel sympathy for Smoke because he not a bad guy at all, it's just that nobody knows who he is because he keeps to himself. Carl Hiaasen doesn't voice Smoke's opinion because then there wouldn't be any mystery in the book. The reader wouldn't want to know what happens next because they would already know. Until the end of the book the reader expects that Smoke was the one who started the fire, but it takes a turn and the reader gets interested. If Smoke had a voice then we would know who he was and the mystery around him would disappear. This is why Carl Hiaasen doesn't give Smoke a voice.
     This book also shows injustice because the police suspect Smoke when he hasn't done anythings wrong. It just goes to  show that if you do something in your past then it will come back to bite you later on. Smoke is a different person from who he was, but nobody believes that he has changed so he's the prime suspect in the arson case. I think it's unfair that Smoke is being suspected of comething he didn't do.
      The social problems in this book are exactly like problems in real life. There is injustice to Mike Brown who was shot by a cop and the cop was not prosecuted. I think that people really just need to understand each other in order to be friends. For example, nobody knows Smoke and that why nobody believes him when he says he didn't do it. Understanding is the key.