Blog Review { The Stolen Party: Labels and Power Struggle by Ilana Cohen }

       A blog post that I read this week that really stood out to me was on Ilana Cohen's blog, Live Every Day Like it's Book Day. It was about a novel called The Stolen Party, where a maid's daughter has to deal with the labels being thrown at her because of her and her mother's status in society. Ilana discusses one particular event in the book where the girl, Rosaura, has the false idea that she was invited to a party simply as a guest, when she was actually hired for her service. Rosaura's hopes are crushed and reality comes tumbling back when her mother's employer, Señora Ines, hands her the money for her work at the end of the party. Ilana links this critical event in her book to labeling and a power struggle between social classes to create a model blog post. 

        Ilana really analyzed Rosaura's feelings before, during, and after the party. Rosaura had taken her time to look nice for the party, so Ilana concluded that she was trying to rid herself of the label "the maid's daughter" and seen as another girl who looked like she belonged at the party. Ilana also compares her pretty dress to a "defense mechanism", saying that it covers up her identity and shows a wealthier and more socially inclined Rosaura. Lastly, Ilana noticed that Rosaura felt empowered during the party because she was helping cut the cake, and she could decide how big of a piece she would cut for each person. But the power shifts after the party when Señora Ines hands Rosaura her pay and she realizes she was just a maid, not an actual guest. Ilana's analytical eye helps her and the reader of her blog post become more aware of the characters' feelings and the reoccurring themes.  

       Although Ilana recalls the party scene in depth, her blog post still makes me want to read The Stolen Party to get more background information and to find out how Rosaura deals with her situation. It reminds me of a book that I read over the summer called Tell Us We're Home by Marina Budhos, where three girls become friends because their parents are maids for wealthier families. Another strength of Ilana's blog post is that she comes up with an overall theme and takes part of a paragraph connecting it to the world. It helps whoever is reading the post to realize the use of the book and what they are reading in real life. For example, Ilana writes that people are treated differently based on their social class, which is wrong. I definitely agree with her and I think reading books like these will help people realize the problems. 

        Overall, Ilana's post was very good and I think she accomplished the task of writing about power struggles and hierarchies. She had the perfect amount of summarizing and retelling so the reader wouldn't be confused, but enough analyzing and quoted to keep it engaging. Her post was also very organized and made sense when you went from paragraph to paragraph. I will definitely try to use some of Ilana's strategies to improve my own blog posts.

http://bookbybookweekly.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-stolen-party-labels-and-power.html