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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Tulsa City-County Library.
Mar 02, 2018miaone rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
The plot needs more detail, and more depth. For example, when she first sees an acquaintance stealing, she hangs onto the fact rather than telling an adult. This causes her later problems to be bigger than they would've been with someone to help her carry the burden. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have asked for help dealing with problems that were awfully big for a kid. Also, there were parts of the plot that were introduced and then just left hanging. An example of that is how angry she got about some of the kids agreeing to take a message to someone in the camp, and even accepting a tip for it, but never actually delivering the message. Yet she does just that. Granted that something rather jarring happens before she completed the errand, but after she was all right, she never got back to delivering the message for which she had accepted a tip. No explanation. It felt like the author didn't even notice. Finally, when her biggest problem was resolved, and also her next-to-biggest, it seemed to happen so casually that it didn't fit with the drama and hurt feelings of the first 80% of the novel. I think in real life neither of the resolutions would have happened, and she would have to learn to live with the pain and the loss as did everyone who was imprisoned unjustly as she was. Perhaps I shouldn't compare it to anything else, but I keep thinking of "Farewell to Manzanar", how well-written it is, how full of details that help the reader really see the camp and the effects of the camp on the family.