Reflection: I chose A&P for my apprentice book because I can remember details and draw connections from the story that I cannot with the others. I found the premise simple yet interesting and the last line of the story was what ultimately lead me to my choice. The way John Updike describes the girls can be viewed as rude and disrespectful, however theres a truth in the way they are depicted. It’s an honesty that many think in their heads, yet rarely say out loud. From this it became captivating in a way that portrays a realism to the writing and helped me connect to the story. Applying this to my apprentice book, I chose words that Updike used that I believed would tell the story with the most minimal words possible. My first pages show the girls entering the store and the character becoming distracted, represented by failing to remember ringing up the Hi-Ho crackers. Pages 3 and 4 help to show the difference in attire appropriate for the beach, and how it doesn’t fit with the setting of the store. Pages 5 and 6 show the character quitting in hopes of gaining recognition from the three girls. The final page concludes the story with the realization of what the character has just done and ends with the last line of the text in the story being “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter. I represented this by having the character take on the pose of atlas holding up the world.

Reflection book making: I chose to create my book in a traditional style with 6 pages, with an image on each page in relation to the text. I felt that being simplistic would best fit with the story because the story itself, although a little extreme at the end, can be viewed as a normal occurrence within the short time frame that it took place. My main focus wasn’t on the design of the book itself, but how the story would be told through the pictures that correlate to the text I included. With a lack of artistic ability I did my best to make my imagery exaggerated while being able to convey the important pieces in an understandable way. From the way Updike described everything in the text this was my interpretation, and how I visualized the writing in my head.