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I chose this book because when I came across this book in the school library, the book cover looked interesting. Then I opened the book and read the summary, and it talked about how the main character had many hardships. These hardships included having to take care of her little brother and her great-grandma without the help of her parents. Yet, with all these hardships, she found happiness gazing at and learning about the stars in the sky. After reading the summary, I knew I found the right book.

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"When she heard the first yelp, Angel was at the sink washing the supper dishes."

The author drops the reader in a position where they wonder where the yelp is coming from and why that person is yelping.

In the second paragraph, it says:
"It was when the yelp turned into crying that she realized where it was coming from. 'Bernie!'... Bernie sat on the rug whimpering and staring at the couch. Flames were dancing up from a worn cushion."

I think these opening lines are good because it gives us an idea of who Angel and Bernie were. You can tell that Angel is the responsible one when she washes the dishes and scolds Bernie. You can also tell that Bernie is the misbehaving one who needs supervision when he starts a small fire by accident.

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Verna: "Well, that's that. That's the last time you'll ever have to visit this hellhole again."

Angel: "Is he coming home?"

Verna: "Nope. He says they might let him go out on a work crew, but he says a lot of things. Soon as we get to the house, I want you kids to pack up your stuff. We're moving."

Bernie: "Yippee! Yippee!"

Verna: "My sentiments exactly. It's well past time for me to put Wayne Morgan behind me and get on with the rest of my life."

Bernie: "You mean I don't never have to come to jail again?"

Verna: "Never."

Bernie: "Never! Never! Never!"

The dialogue between Angel, her little brother Bernie, and her mother Verna is important because they are making a big decision to move out of their home and leave Angel's father behind, who is in jail.

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Angel: "I told you, Bernie. I told you, she's just gone for a little while. She'll be back soon."

Bernie: "No, she won't. She's run away and she's never coming back. Never. Never. Never. And it's all my fault, 'cause I was bad."

Angel: "She is coming back, Bernie. I promise. And you weren't bad."

Bernie: "I was. I was. I was. I wanted a milk shake. She promised me a milk shake. That's why I was so bad. She promised."

Angel: "I know, Bernie. I know. But people can't always keep their promises. Even when they want to. But Mama will come home soon. That's a really true promise. I promise you."

Bernie: "How do you know it's true?"

Angel: "I just know it, okay?"

The dialogue between Angel and Bernie is important because it is during the time that their mother abandoned them at their great-grandma's house. Angel didn't know if their mother would come back or not, but she promised Bernie that their mother would come back so Bernie wouldn't cry.

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Verna: "I'm sorry, Angel. About everything..."

Angel: "Don't worry about it, Mama. I'm doing okay, and Bernie's gonna be all right. You just think about getting better yourself."

Angel: "Me and Bernie need you, Mama. You don't know how much I been missing you."

Mama: "I thought you was the grownup, baby. You always have been."

Angel: "I'm even more tired of being the grownup than Grandma is. I'm not even twelve years old, Mama. I'm not supposed to be the grownup. That's your job."

The dialogue from Angel and her mother are important because it shows the resolution to the story. It shows how Angel's mother, Verna, has turned over a new leaf and is going to be the grownup that takes care of her and her little brother Bernie. It also shows how Angel doesn't need to take the stressful responsibility of being the grownup who takes care of everyone.

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An important plot event is when Angel goes outside to see the beautiful stars in the night sky and meets the star man. This is important because after the star man teaches her some facts about stars, she becomes very interested in it. Her love for stargazing helped her get through tough events later in the book.

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Another important plot event is when Bernie gets taken early from school by Angel's mother, Verna, without Angel or her great-grandma knowing. This is important because Angel's and Bernie's mother abandoned Angel and Bernie at their great-grandma's house, so when Bernie gets taken back by their mother, Angel is panicking. She doesn't know how she can get Bernie back.

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An important plot event is when Angel visits the star man on his deathbed at the hospital. This is important because the star man had such a big impact on her favorite hobby, stargazing. Here, she also realizes that the star man is actually her grandpa, Ray Morgan. In the book, it doesn't specify why the star man is in the hospital about to die. I infer that it's because he didn't manage his health right because, in the previous chapter, Angel's great-grandma said that he took a lot of drugs and had PTSD after being drafted during the Vietnam War.

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"The large houses, most, like theirs, divided into two or more decaying apartments, squatted like old women, staring at each other, fat and sullen across the narrow, potholed street. She hated this place but it was better than some they'd lived in, certainly better than foster care."

Based on this quote, I infer that sullen means boring or depressing because the narrator is talking about Angel's home in a negative tone. In the quote above, other negative words like decaying, fat, potholed, and hated were used, so it led me to the conclusion that sullen means boring or depressing.

Denotation Definition of Sullen: "a sulky, bad-tempered, or depressing mood."

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"The nurse wouldn't let Miss Liza and her nephew see Ray, They weren't kin. Only kin could go into Intensive Care."

Based on this quote, I think kin means relatives. This is because, later in the paragraph, the nurse let Angel in to see the star man (Ray) because she was his relative. In the quote above, it says that Miss Liza and her nephew weren't allowed to see Ray, and I know that they are not relatives, so it led me to the conclusion that kin means relatives.

Denotation Definition of Kin: "one's family and relations."

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Thematic Concept: Perseverance and Hope

Thematic Statement: If you have perseverance and hope, you can face all of life's hardships.

I think that perseverance and hope are the themes of this book because Angel had many hardships, like having to take care of Bernie and her great-grandma by herself without her mother and facing the death of the star man. If she didn't have perseverance and hope, she would have given up.

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Angel: "I'm never going to speak to you again as long as I live, Bernie Morgan."

This is a hyperbole which means that Angel won't speak to Bernie and she is showing that she is mad at him. She used hyperbole to make Bernie feel guilty for saying that he hates their father, who is in jail.

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Verna: "Hurry up, and I mean both of you. I swear, sometimes you kids act like snails on Valium... Get a move on, will you?"

This is a simile that means that they are very slow. To show how slow they are, their mother compares them to snails on Valium (a drug that relaxes your muscles). Verna uses this simile to make them hurry up so they can move out of their apartment.

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Narrator: "So that was what the bazooka was: a telescope."

This is a metaphor that means that the telescope is very big and unique. The narrator compares the telescope to a bazooka to show how it's big and something they don't see often. Angel thought the telescope was a bazooka before because she didn't know what it was before.

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Great-Grandma: "If I was you, Angel, I'd pour my hopes into some other bucket."

This is an idiom that means to lose hope in something. Angel's Great-Grandma uses this idiom to tell Angel that she shouldn't have too much hope that her mother comes back.

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Narrator: "Of course, the stars didn't know their names. They didn't even know they belonged together in a picture of a bear or a horse or a woman chained to a rock, waiting for a whale to swallow her up."

This is personification that means that stars were only in constellations and were only given names because humans gave it to them. Even though stars are not alive, the narrator talks about them as if they were actually alive.

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At what point in the book do you think Angel's interest in stars is first seen?

I think Angel's interest in stars was first seen on pages 4 and 5 because she tells Bernie to wish on the shooting star in the sky. She was interested in the shooting star because she thought it was a sign that things were going to get better.

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Do you think Bernie gets more mature as the book goes on?

I think even though he still is immature at the end of the book, I still think he got a little more mature compared to the beginning of the book. This is because, on pages 58-61, Bernie keeps whining and annoying their mother for a milkshake, or something to eat, even though he had the chance to eat a burger before. But, later in the book, on page 128, even though Bernie didn't like ham, he decided not to whine about it and to just eat it.

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What do you think was the cause of the star man's death?

I think the cause of the star man's death was because he didn't manage his health well. On page 209, Angel's great-grandma said that the star man took drugs and had PTSD after serving in the Vietnam War.

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The mood on pages 216-220 was somber because it was the star man's funeral. Angel's great-grandma was barely talking and everyone else at the funeral were depressed, and some were crying.

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Great-Grandma: "Maybe they should have died over in Vietnam, but they didn't. They come home, both of them all messed up with drugs."

This connects to the Vietnam War because many Vietnam War veterans had a lot of mental health issues like PTSD from the amount of violence they saw and the friends they lost in the war.

https://www.research.va.gov/currents/0322-Study-finds-ongoing-mental-health-concerns-for-Vietnam-Veterans.cfm