review on "Remembering an event"

In the first story "Calling Home", a young girl goes to the mall with her family and steels something small. She gets caught, and was arrested for the event. The girl was so ashamed of what she had done and hated the fact that she was a disappointment to her family. In the second story"An American Childhood", a girl throws a ice ball at a car, and is then chased by the cars owner. When the owner of the car finally caught up to her, he did nothing but lecture her on her wrong doings. She was not mad at the man, but amazed at how much effort he had gone through to give his lecture to them.
With both stories the girls got caught, and punished for their actions. In the first story, jean is so ashamed for what she had done so she needed no more punishment. The guilt, and embarrassment was extreme for her. In the second story, the girl did not seem to care so much about her action, but about how the man gave all he had to catch her and her friend. She new that if the man did catch her that he would do her no harm, but she kept running just for the sport involved in the chase. I think the reason that she was not angry with him is that she respected for catching them, and after all she did hit his car on purpose with the ice ball.

One thing that makes a good story would have to be something that is not boring, or dragged out. Keeping the story exciting and full of life is what draws me to read something. I'm not much of a reader so I have to be very interested in a book to actually read it all the way to the end.