Benito Runs

Benito Runs

Over the last time I have made my blog, I have read a book. The book that I read was Benito Runs written by Justine Fontes. The book’s main character is a teenager named Benito coming home from Iraq.

Benito and his mother and sister wait for his father’s return. Benito anticipated his father to be the same for his arrival as he was for his departure. He expected that his father would play soccer with him. Bowling used to be one of their favorite pass times. Benito and his sister, Armida, enjoyed eating their father’s enchiladas. Most of all Benito enjoyed spending time with his father, Xavier.

When Benito’s father arrived, the family saw an instant change in his mood. The family had a festivity prepared. Instead Benito’s father was serious. This meant that the celebration did not take place. On that same night the former soldier had nightmares. His nightmares were so extreme that his screams woke up the family. From that point onward Benito’s father treated the family differently. He demanded that the house had to be extremely organized. Xavier was very meticulous with the organization. Benito and Armida had to make the bed properly that their father checked with a coin to make sure that the bed was properly made. When Benito’s father’s commands were not accomplished he would yell. Yelling became part of the household. Benito was getting tired of this routine.

Soccer was Benito’s favorite sport. He was the leader of the soccer team. Benito was extremely focused with soccer because that was the way how he did not had to be with his father. Steve happened to be Benito’s best friend and neighbor. Steve always reminded Benito that at the end there will always be a positive side. At school there was a fundraiser. The fundraiser was to buy tickets for a bowling event. Benito was the person who raised the most amount of money.
Everyone in Benito’s family assisted the bowling event. Benito’s father was uncomfortable being in a crowd. As the event occurred, Benito’s father saw a “camel spider” on his shoe. He created an episode in the crowd. Benito’s mother was able to take her husband outside. She told Benito’s father that he was just imagining the camel spider because they do not live in Texas. Benito was embarrassed. At school people teased Benito about the incident. Steve kept reminding Benito that everything will be bound to get better.

The situation at home remained the same. Benito’s father kept yelling and kept demanding perfection. Benito’s teacher gave him a journal to write down his thoughts because it will make him feel better. This teacher saw that there was something wrong with Benito. On one day Benito came home from school and saw that his parents were not home. Armida told Benito that his mom took his father to the VA hospital for treatment. VA stands for veteran’s affairs. Benito made the decision that this was the opportunity for him to run away.

Benito’s destination was his friend’s home in Dallas. He hitch hiked a ride to the bus station. He bought a bus ticket with the money he had by mowing lawns. On the bus trip there was a rest stop. At the rest stop he was mugged. After the mugger received the wallet, he shot Benito. Benito survived, but he was worried about his father finding out. At the hospital Benito saw his father. His father actually apologized to Benito for embarrassing him. He told Benito that at the hospital he went to that he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. The doctor also recommended Benito’s father to write in a journal his thoughts.

This story was short and sweet to the point which I enjoyed. There are not many books written towards adolescents that are less than 100 pages long. The story was not slow moving. This is why I enjoyed reading it. In the last book I have read it took 100 pages for the story to get moving. When I finished reading this book it felt as if it only took me two pages to finish the book because it seemed that it took me no time reading this story. The story was engaging since the beginning.

I am not a violent person. I say this because it would not sound realistic that Benito would get shot in real life. First off, Benito handed the thief his wallet. Most thieves do not shoot people who have handed them what they want. Thieves do shoot people when people resist handing them what they want. Another point to make is the thief did not check how much money that Benito had in his wallet. In actuality Benito only had cents in his wallet. Shooting someone for a couple of cents is ridiculous. Another point to make is that thieves rarely steal from minors. This is because minors are the people who carry the least amount of money on them. To make the story seem more realistic a gun did not needed to be involved. The author could have better written this part by having the bus driver contacting the police because he saw Benito running away from home and he saw an amber alert about him on the highway.

Xavier did have similarities with the character Melinda Sordino from the novel Speak. Both of them endured post traumatic disorder. Xavier’s post traumatic stress disorder came from participating in the war. Melinda had this because she was violated. Both of them did not enjoyed being in a crowd of people. Xavier became overwhelmed by crowds by being at the bowling alley. Melinda avoided crowds by hiding in the janitor’s closet. They also demonstrated their emotions uniquely. Melinda demonstrated her problems through art. Xavier relieved his emotions by writing in a journal. It is quite interesting on how a teenage girl and a veteran have many similarities.

In the last two books that I have read I saw something interesting. Both stories promoted language arts. In the story the Last Dog on Earth the author promotes reading by having the main character discussing the significance of reading. For instance, that reading requires total concentration. In a television show a person can miss ten minutes of it and still comprehend what the actors are talking about. If the reader misses a paragraph they might lose the whole story because each sentence is crucial. In this story, language arts were promoted by the teacher and VA hospital telling Benito and Xavier to write because it releases the emotions. The reason of why this caught my attention was because I did not find any significance of the authors inserting this into their stories.

To conclude, this novel was a great quick read and a significant story. There are not many stories about the children who have parents in the armed forces. Many people do not realize that these children live life differently than others. Some children lose a parent due to war. Other children have to live with a different parent at home because their parent has changed. These changes in the family might be emotional or physical. The author made the reader realize that children should be grateful for the parents they have because everyone’s parents are different.