The
book, CHERUB: Maximum Security, is about a top-secret organization that
uses kids at the ages of 7-17 to perform top-secret missions, which the CIA,
FBI, and MI5 have never been able to accomplish. This book contains a lot of
action and adventure, which I enjoyed because they put a vivid picture in my
head about what was happening. These details brought a number of interesting questions to my
mind, especially about the role kids play in society.
In
particular, I question of how child criminals are treated by the justice
system. It is ironic that while CHERUB missions usually involve kids putting adult
criminals behind bars, this time, the main protagonist, child spy, James Adams,
is supposed to break a child criminal out of a maximum-security prison. The
14-year-old criminal, Curtis Oxford, was convicted of killing 3 innocent people
and is being held in a maximum-security prison in Arizona. It’s hard to believe
that if a child commits a serious crime, they can be sentenced just as adults
by the justice system. I can't imagine being sentenced to life in prison or
worse. As a citizen of my community, I understand that the larger good in
society sometimes requires tough discipline, even for kids. However, I wonder
if a harsh punishment means that child may miss a chance to truly change. Can
we trust the system to do the right thing? How do we help kids avoid committing
crimes?
Great reading post, Jake. I really like how your reading guides you to important questions in the real world.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei agree with you that harsh punishments can affect kids growing up. Although if all the kids around the world were just trusted by everyone they might not always do the right thing, which is the sad part. Good post!
ReplyDeleteYes, kids should be trusted but they should earn their trust by doing the right thing all the time. I love the way you made you book a real world problem, nice post!
ReplyDelete