Book Review: To All The Boys I Ve Loved Before

Jeanette Walls had a sense of responsibility when her parents didn’t have any. When it came down to Walls’ younger sister she says, “At times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her.” (Walls 206) Structure. Through misguided trials with the family the children picked up on things they knew or at least felt what a family should be and act like. She strives for protection.

Jenny Han is an american author of young adult fiction geared towards high school teens who love romance and drama. Jenny Han is the author of the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” series and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series. She also is in production of the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” movie. During her work, she earned a GoodReads Choice Awards nomination for best young adult fiction.

While she is in the hospital, her mother does not stay with her. Instead she visits a few times and gives her oranges, seeming to be disappointed in the fact that it is an illness. At this point in the story, the reader can begin to feel sorry for young Jeanette. She is left all alone in the hospital while her mother is busy helping the church. Jeanette wants to be a missionary, just like in the stories her mom has read to her. In the beginning of the book, it appears that Jeanette’s mother does love her. However, it appears that she only loves her based on if she fulfills her expectations or not.

The movie moves to Lara who is told to go to a dinner in her mother’s place because she

Josh gets in fights with his brother Jordan because he has to help him with his school work because he is out with his girlfriend Alexis “Miss Sweet Tea, Miss Bitter Tea”. Josh gets through the story with

In the novel, The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls, a conflicted mother, named Charlotte, struggles with taking care of her two kids named, Liz and Jean. Jean is a twelve year old girl who goes by the name Bean. She is very responsible and good at taking care of herself. Liz is fifteen years old and she takes care of Bean and herself. The girls try hard to figure out where to stay whenever their mother unexpectedly leaves for a couple days.

Throughout her childhood, Jeannette is faced with instability. Her parents had a very unique style that could be classified as “hands off” parenting. For example, Rose tells Jeanette that “If you don’t want to sink you better learn to swim… That’s one lesson that every parent needs to teach their child” (Walls 137). Instead of growing up in a traditional house, Jeannette and her family constantly moved from town to town. When her mother got bored, or her father got in too many bar fights, Jeannette was forced to pick up her life and move to another small desert town. Due to her nomadic lifestyle, Jeannette refrained from establishing deep friendships amongst her school and

She realizes that it is partly her fault for Ma’s death, and constantly feels remorse and sorrow. Even before Ma’s passing, Billie Jo has a longing to get out of the dust, as the book implies, and out of all the hardship that comes with it. Specifically, Billie Jo reflects, “And I’m wondering what kind of friend I am, wanting my feet on that road to another place, instead of Livie’s” (Hesse 9). Billie Jo’s best friend, Livie, is moving away to California so her family can find work, and Billie Jo seems to be jealous of it.

He usually let her out on the streets alone when she was young and often did not teach her the traditional paternal love and guidance in life. She eventually used this childhood to foster her own happiness, making it as positive as possible by herself, and instead of hating her dad, she grew to love him. Although my cousin did not exactly have Jeannette’s problems, she grew to continue loving him, which is what Jeannette did for

Because she was considered a small child, her siblings took extra care to make sure she was okay and that she did not grow up the way she did. Jeannette Walls often took it personally when she thought that she failed her as a big sister. Many times throughout her life “felt like I [she] was failing Maureen, like I [she] wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d [she had] made to her [Maureen] when I [she] held her on the way way home from the hospital after she was born.” (Walls 206). The confilct Maureen was facing, was external. She could not change the fact that her siblings looked after her like she was there own child. They would buy her presents, and try to protect her from the cruel, harsh world their parents put them in. Maureen older siblings made she was

2. Jeannette and her parents have a unique relationship throughout the book. As much as Jeanette loves and cherishes her parents, she also feels unloved by them at times. As Jeanette grows and becomes wiser, she realizes just how unsafe her life was as she was a child. Jeanette feels that her parents love the way they live, although she cannot help but pity them and try to help them to live better.

Jeannette is the narrator of her memoir, telling her story from age three into adulthood. As a child she is adventurous, wild-hearted, and Dad 's favorite. Jeannette, a middle sibling, is closer to younger brother Brian than her older sister Lori: Brian shares Jeannette 's love of the outdoors, while Lori is more a bookworm. As Jeannette matures, her feelings toward Dad and Mom change. She resents Dad 's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also resents Mom 's refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply. These resentments make her more and more willful and independent. Eventually she scrapes

Margot is calm, serious girl who enjoys studying. She is the oldest daughter in the family. Anne and Margot have a few family. Anne and Margot have a few arguments during their time in the Annex but sometimes they get alone well. and talk about a lot of things. Still March 12,1944 Anne writes in her diary. Margot spends most of her time thinking about her looney sister Anne. Margot doesn’t play at

2. Background: Josh is Margot’s ex-boyfriend. She dumped him before she left for college which was in a whole other country. Peter is fake dating Laura because she wanted to make Josh think that she didn’t like him anymore.

Once returning to Stamps, silent and traumatized, Marguerite meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers. Marguerite discusses her as “the aristocrat of Black Stamps.” (93) Marguerite looks up to Mrs. Flowers in many ways. She is beautiful and sophisticated and according to Marguerite, Mrs. Flowers “has remained throughout my life the measure of what a human being can be.” (94) Mrs. Flowers took Marguerite under her wing and into her home. She shared her books with her and allowed Marguerite to read from them, spend time with her, enjoy cookies, and lemonade, all while bringing her back from her silent ways after her rape. She encouraged Marguerite to be “intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy” as not everyone had the ability or luxury to become educated. (99) Marguerite was in awe of