Ashley's Dream Birthday

Author's Note: This prediction piece is about what I thought was going to happen in the book Birthday Vicious.

In the first chapters of Birthday Vicious  Ashley's party is canceled because her mom is sick. When Ashley and her mom go to a planner to help them plan Ashley's thirteenth birthday party her mom ends up throwing up all over her office. All they were able to plan was what the theme was. Ashley was really looking forward to her party but now that her mom's sick she is no longer allowed to have the dream party that she was expecting.  Ashley then tries to do anything that she can, she tries to manipulate her mom into thinking that even though she's sick that doesn't mean that Ashley can't plan the party herself. That makes me believe that Ashley is the kind of character that makes sure that they get whatever they want when they want it. 

Well I was reading the story I predicted that somehow Ashley was going to get the party that she wanted. So far she has tried to explain why she can't plan the party herself and she has also tried to have one of her other friends plan a matter for her, but her mom just wouldn't let her have the party. Ashley has even tried helping her mom with whatever she needs to see if her mom will finally get better and help her plan the party, While Ashley is helping her mom she finds out that her mom isn't planning to get better anytime soon because she's pregnant. Ashley has never had any brothers or sister's before and when she found out she knew that she wasn't going to be able to have the birthday she wants. But at school she is pretending that she's still going to have the party , when she singles out most of the girls at school when she gives other girls invitations when everyone else was in the room and saw her hand out the invitations someone complains and Ashley is then forced by the school's consular to give all the girls invitations. Ashley knows that not even the girls that she first invited can come she gets freaked out and tells her mom what was going on. When she tells her mom that she got in trouble at school her mom lets her finally have the party and tries to help her in any way that she can. 

Character Devlopment

Author's Note: Touching Spirit Bear is a book about a boy that has always been an outcast and has problems controlling his temper.

Cole in Touching Spirit Bear has always had a problem with most kids at school. He has took a lot of bad turns in life, but it's not his fault his parents are never home and when his dad is home he's always drunk. Cole has no one to tell him right from wrong and he doesn't have anyone there for him when he just wants to talk to someone. 

Sometimes it takes a long time for people to change and sometimes it doesn't. Cole in Touching Spirit Bear has always been the one to stand out in a crowd but not because he's different but because he's the one to always cause the problem. Many kids have always been mean to Cole and when Peter starts to bully him at school and Cole goes out of control. After slamming Peter's head into the ground at school he was sent to an island that has been deserted for years. He has no food and no shelter and no one to help him along the way. He is forced to forge for food and to build his own shelter. His parole officer Garvey comes to the island to try and help him find food. Cole has always just thought of another person that hates him but when they get to know him he realizes that Garvey isn't that bad after all, he ends up liking Garvey and gets his first friend ever. Garvey helped Cole figure out how to get his anger out other ways, Cole realizes that there are other ways to express your feelings and that hurting people is terrible way to express your feelings. He learned when he was at the island that he shouldn't hurt people and beat them up anymore because, when you hurt people, you generally have some form of a punishment. 

When Garvey thinks that Cole's ready to go back home he makes him meet Peter first. Garvey brought Cole down to the hospital were Peter was healing and he had Cole explain how sorry he was and that he really did change. Peter had a couple of problems with Cole being back at school and being able to go back but when they started talking to each other Peter realized that maybe Cole really did change.

Cole reminds me of Lilly from Secret of Bees just like Lilly he doesn't really have any parents that care about him. He's dad always is drunk and his mom always beats him. He has no family that really cares for him, just like Lilly he also went on an adventure that changed who he is and affected how he acted after he went back home.

Conflict/Resolution

Author's Note: Lilly has been beaten and laughed at by her dad, but when she leaved her home and sets out to find more about her mom, there's no clue what's going to happen.

In Secret Life of Bees there are many conflicts like Lilly and Rosaleen having to break out of jail but the main conflict that they have to face is Lilly trying to find clues that will help her find out more about her mom. Lilly's mom died when she was just a little girl, she had no clue what her mom was like. The main conflict in the story is person vs. self, Lilly has been through a lot. When her mom died her dad started beating her and made her feel insecure about herself, Lilly wants to find out things about her mom so she can feel like herself again.

In the book it is easy to tell that Lilly really wants to know more about her mom. She went through a lot of trouble just to get to the city that her mom might have been in, people made fun of her along the way for running away with her maid. When she gets to the house she is welcomed in but she soon finds out that May a girl that lives at the house is really depressed since her twin sister died. May used to be a really happy girl until her sister died she now crys at every sad thing she hears, it's like a part of her was lost when she died. Lilly finds out about May's story and they find out that the same thing happened to each other, May lost her twins sister when she was young and Lilly lost her mom when there family member died part of the also died.

The main conflict is a lot like Cole in Touching Spirit Bear. Cole was just a boy that had no parents that really cared for him. His mom was never home and when she was she was busy beating him and his dad was always home but he was always drunk. Just like Lilly some of the actions that he did weren't his fault. He was mad at his parents. Lilly was never really mad though she just never really knew what they were like.

Cause and Effect

Author's Note: Secret Life of Bees is a book about a girl named Lilly that is trying to found out what her mom was like and what she did while she was there.

Lilly has been abused by her dad ever since her mom died. At the time she was very happy, she loved her family but after her mom died her dad started to abuse her. Lilly has no clue what to do or where to go anymore. But when she goes to her church with her maid Rosaleen. Rosaleen gets caught for stealing a fan and is sent to jail. Lilly is then alone with her father with no one to talk to and no one to help her, but when she sees this picture of a lady that her mom kept for her she sees a name of a city on the back of it. That gives her an idea, I can just go find Rosaleen and we can go find the city that's on the back of the picture. 

When Lilly and Rosaleen are on there way they think about why Lilly's mom would keep a picture of a lady to give to Lilly, but then they have an idea maybe Lilly's mom was once in that city. Lilly and Rosaleen now what to go there more than anything, they want to see if Lilly's mom really was there. When they finally get to the house that they were looking for they ask the people that live there if they can stay there for a little while. Rosaleen and Lilly both make up fake names so if news spreads out about them breaking out of jail they won't get caught. May one of the people in the story is very emotional. When she was just a kid her twin sister died. Her and her sister were like best friends. They spent every second together but ever since than when she hears something sad she starts to cry. When she finds out that Zack one of their family friends has been in jail. She can't stand it any more and she asks if she can leave to go to her wall but instead of going to her wall she goes out to the river and drowns herself. After she kills herself things get a little better Lilly realizes that her mom really did live in there house and she learns things about her childhood that she wouldn't have found out if she didn't leave her dad.

Lilly reminds me of Lauren from Jealous I Think You Are?. Lauren also doesn't think a lot about herself. After Lilly's mom died she only had her dad to talk to but her dad was always beating her up and telling her how much he hated her. The only person that Lilly really wanted to talk to was Rosaleen but when Rosaleen gets sent to jail Lilly has to make a lot of changes just like Lauren did so they could both be accepted by other people.