The Vow - How different are people allowed to be in this text? Does it assume everyone is happy and good in the same ways?

Throughout the years I have read books about people being different and have friendships dispute those differences. Yet I have never read anything as touching and interesting as The Vow by Jessica Martinez.  The Vow describes the friendship of Mo and Annie, and how when Mo is forced to move back to Jordan because his dad lost his job and his visa is gone, him and Annie figure out a loop hole: marriage. The book first shows the constant teasing and distress Mo experiences because of his differences when he first moved to America in fifth grade. But then in the actual time the book takes place, shows how people accept Mo and understand and love his differences. The book also doesn't assume everyone is good and happy in the same ways.
In a flash back in the beginning of the book, Mo describes his life when he first moved to America. The description revolves around the teasing and bullying he got for him being different. Everyday he would be bullied and be outcasted because he was from a different place and had a different accent and had different customs.  He had no friends and missed home and his old friends. He tried so hard to be like everyone else because he hated being harassed, but gave up seeing that it wasn't helping him. One quote that describes his harassment is: "At first I tried to correct false assumptions one at a time, but I learned pretty quickly that talking back ended in getting shoved against my locker or leveled by a kick in the back of the knee" (Martinez 41). This shows that he was constantly bullied for his differences and slowly learned it did no help.
But thankfully during the actual time that the book takes place, his differences are excepted more. He has lots of friends, is on the basketball team, is smart, and has a good social life.Yet he is still seen as the "arab boy or that iraqi kid". Lots of people still see him different but except that. Annie and Bryce and a few others don't see him different at all; he's their best friend. The quote in the book describes that he will always be seen as different, yet he will be excepted: " It's true though, that at the end of the day he's still the nice arab boy or that iraqi kid, and no amount of time here will change that" (Martinez 4). Nice should be the word we focus on.
Moving on, Mo is happy and good in different ways then a lot of people, and the book shows it. Mo is good at school work and studying and doing well on tests, and Annie is good at art and more creative things. Nobody cares that they're good at different things. Mo is happy when he plays basketball or when he's learning interesting facts, while Annie is happy when she's painting her bedroom mural and working at the ice cream shop. Once again nobody cares that different things make them happy.
The text makes me wonder if in other places when people move to their town or city, do people bully them because of their differences and then discover they like them and don't care that they're a little different.

How does this book help you think about social issues you care about or causes you are committed to? - Eleanor and Park

Tons of books are being written about abuse and poverty. These issues have become popular among teens and they can't seem to get enough. "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell satisfies these teens craving. The book focuses on the romantic relationship between Eleanor and Park. Eleanor has a very bad home life; her mother is physically abused by her alcoholic husband and her family is always struggling for money. Park helps her deal with her feelings about her family as he begins to fall in love with her. Reading this book made me care even more those two issues because of the heavy focus on them in the book and how they were explained and presented. That showed me the importance of these issues and how they are a very serious problem in the real world.
Throughout the book, Eleanor's mother gets abused by Richie (Eleanor's stepdad). That being one of the main reasons of Eleanor's passionate hatred of her stepdad. All night long, Eleanor hears her mother screaming, wailing, shouting, and crying. Richie curses her mom out and you can hear the slaps across her mother's face. Their fights are intense and sickening. This happens basically every night. Eleanor even sees the bruises Richie makes on her mother: "Eleanor pretended not to notice the bruises on her mom's wrist" (Rowell 26). Even Eleanor gets abused by Richie. He curses at her and says the most awful things to her and her mother: "FUCK THIS. FUCK ALL OF YOU. STUPID BITCHES." (Rowell 153). Sometime Richie will slap Eleanor. The abuse is a huge issue in the story.
Poverty is also a huge issue in the book. The family is always struggling for money. Eleanor has to wear the ugliest clothes from thrift stores because she can't afford to buy nice clothes from regular stores. At school people make fun of her about it and sometimes it really gets to her, "And she was dressed like...like she wanted people to look at her. Or maybe like she didn't get what a mess she was" (Rowell 8). The family is always struggling to have enough food to eat and to buy necessities such as soap. It seems as if the family never has enough money to do anything, even on thanksgiving they had trouble purchasing all the thanksgiving foods.
So by reading this book I have come to care for the issues of poverty and abuse even more than I had before. The book focuses on these two issues so heavily, I paid so much attention to them, and learned a lot about how the characters felt about these issues and how it affected their daily lives. It showed me that these issues are a serious problem in the real world and that they need to be dealt with. Some people are really suffering with poverty and need to be given money so they can buy food and suitable clothing. And some people are really suffering with abuse and need to be in therapy.
Reading about poverty and abuse have opened up so much for me and have made me care about it even more.