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At this point (51 pages in) I am almost certain that the protagonist is Kara. I think this because the entire story so far has been centered around her, and it’s from her point of view - she is telling the story.

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Although she may not seem like it, I think that at this point (78 pages in), Mama looks like the antagonist to me. She keeps trying to protect Kara from things she doesn’t need protection from, she makes decisions that probably shouldn’t be made, and to me she’s just a character that I sort of want to be angry at. I mean, but maybe that’s just me.

Daniel Green

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The previous post was Daniel Green

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The most important thing I read today is that, first of all, her father lives in Missoula, Montana (which is why he can’t visit) and second of all, Kara’s cousin is visiting in four months and that she is a reporter.

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This book is set in Tianjin, China. It is set in an unspecified year, but it is likely in 2015 - the publication year.

Hemesath... I wouldn't assume that... What evidence do you have that it is present day.

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The previous post was Daniel Green

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The previous post was Daniel Green

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The previous post was Daniel Green

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If I was in this situation, I would just go along with what Mama was saying and hope that Jody would bring the books like I asked.

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The previous post was Daniel Green

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The most important thing I read today was that Jody seems to have an endless supply of money to Kara, but judging from the situation and time, it seems to me like a normal amount of money.

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That was Daniel Green

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The setting of Kara’s apartment in Tianjin is not very similar to my home. First of all, I live about halfway across the world from there. But also, Kara’s apartment building seems like much less of a close community than my neighborhood. I at least know the name of almost everyone on my street, and we’re usually pretty friendly to one another. In contrast, Kara’s mother outright discourages her from being in the same room as Zhang Laoshi.

Daniel Green

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The protagonist is Kara Jody and her mom seem to be antagonist a little but mainly a supporting character

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Were I in this situation, I would (like I said yesterday) just sort of not worry about this. Jody seems to have the funds necessary for basically everything, and while this may seem a bit selfish, I would think that we could let her spend what she wants to spend.

Daniel Green

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Daniel Green

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Daniel said the mom is the sort of character you want to be mad at. Kendall you sound like you're not completely sold. Both explain what you mean.

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Daniel Green

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Well, it’s just that I really dislike - I’m not going to go as far as to say hate - when adults (not every adult, or anyone in particular, just certain adults) think that they know better than us, or they can dictate what we can/can’t do, or that childhood has to be the exact same for us as it was for them. I just feel like they’re not seeing the truth - that we know just as much as them, just about different things. They’re older than us and probably bigger than us, but why does that really matter? It’s just a status symbol, a way to make us do what you want. Anyway, I feel like Kara’s mother is doing that - telling Kara that she’s a baby with bad judgement, basically, when that’s not true at all. Kara has displayed great judgement so far, and she’s not getting the credit she deserves.

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I think that the most important thing I read today is that Zhang Laoshi is telling Kara that she has no identity yet. All of a sudden, it makes me think that Mama had a reason for telling Kara to stay away from her...

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This book is still taking place in 20XX or 19XX Tianjin, but now it’s expanded past Kara’s apartment and now seems to be taking place in other areas of Tianjin as well as the building.

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I kind of agree with what I said yesterday, but I also would I ask Jody - out of Mama’s earshot, of course - what they meant by the “whole story” being “burdening”. I’m really curious.

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Why are the quotes important?

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Nothing?!?! really?!?!

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Because all of them symbolize the way Kara is feeling - unable to understand, trapped, unnormal.

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That was Daniel

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I think Zhao Bin is a supporting character. He seems to have a story significance that isn’t exactly protagonistic, but not exactly antagonistic either, so this is the only character archetype left to categorize him in.

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Oh! All of a sudden I understand! Yesterday, when Zhang Laoshi told Kara that she had no identity, I thought she was putting her down and saying she had no sense of self! Now it makes sense. I think that what happened today to make me understand was the most important thing I read today.

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It hasn’t changed since yesterday.

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I would go right up to Mama and ask her - quietly - if my not having an identity, and Zhang Laoshi knowing, is why she told me to stay away. If she said yes or stayed silent, I would proceed to ask her a series of questions all pertaining to why she didn’t tell me. If she said no, she would probably tell me A) Why she did tell me to stay away, or B) Answer my questions about my identity.

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I think this quote is important because life is being like English for Kara - it’s difficult to figure out what to do, and she wishes she just knew, because then it would be easy.

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Today Jody fell and made a huge thud

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Also Ms. Hemesath, to answer your question, I haven’t found any evidence that it’s not present day, so I just assumed...

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In the book today they didn’t have enough money to pay rent so the landlord decided to kick them out unless they pay

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Today Kara lost her mom because the police took her mom.Jodi isn’t getting better and the landlord took their furniture to pay the rent

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I think the landlord is protagonist because he kicked them out even though he knew all that just happened

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I think the mom is protagonist because she keeps hiding things from Kara and she is scared to go out she also keeps making Kara do things like go home where all the police are and steal money sit on the street and beg.also the mom almost left Kara there with the police and just go to the hospital.

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Yesterday, when Zhang Laoshi told Kara that she had no identity, I thought she was putting her down and saying she had no sense of self! Now it makes sense. I think that what happened today to make me understand was the most important thing I read today.Because it helps me understand what she said

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The book takes place in A city in China.I think that it might be very polluted there or something because the mom said that the China air makes her skin burn

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If I were in the situation that Kara is in where she doesn’t feel like she knows her mom anymore I would demand answers from my mom.And if my mom didn’t tell me anything I would feel like I was untrustworthy or like she didn’t like me

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To add on to what i just said since Kara is adopted I would feel like she made a mistake of taking me in

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The

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I think this book takes place in the late 1900 because they have a phone book.

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If I could eliminate any character so far, it would probably be either Daddy or Zhao Bin. I would eliminate Daddy because he just doesn’t have any real story significance. He’s just (implied to be) there to provide a reason for his absence, and to give Kara a reason to want to go to America. Those could still happen without him - Kara was adopted by a single woman; she wants to live out the American Dream. I would eliminate Zhao Bin because aside from telling Kara about the meanings of /identity/ and /adopt/, he isn’t doing anything for the story. Kara could have asked Zhang Laoshi about the meanings of those words - after all, she told Kara about them.

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The conflict for today was Kara first of all not being fluent in Chinese - because she needed to talk to Chinese officials - and also, her not being able to tell people who she was - because the landlord was putting her mother down.

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Page 8 - it sort of describes the setting.

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My favorite character so far is Zhang Laoshi. She is my favorite because she seems to have a lot of important things to tell Kara, but she is told not to. I sort of relate to that.

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The characters haven’t changed much over the course of the book. However, Kara has learned some new things. Originally, she thought that she and Mama were perfectly legal Chinese citizens. Over the course of the book she has learned three things about this matter.
1. She was never legally adopted by Mama.
2. She has no legal identity or government records.
3. Mama does not have a visa to be living in China, and hasn’t for a while.

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What I think is the most important thing I read today is that Jody - who had recently been in a coma-like state due to a spontaneous pulmonary embolism - finally woke up, after what Kara made feel like days. She was even able to string together some coherent sentences!

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The setting hasn’t changed much since really the beginning of the book. It still takes place in 19XX-to-20XX Tianjin.

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I would recommend this book to a friend who hasn’t read it. I would because although it’s told from a child’s point of view (which makes it easy to read), it’s got a strong underlying message - along the lines of “Who people say you are is NOT who you are”.

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Page 173:
"...wishing I had the courage to tell the truth, to hold out my half-hand, to say a real goodbye to an underestimated friend.”

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It really doesn’t change too much. Now she’s in an assisted-living orphanage.

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Now, a new (maybe supporting character, maybe antagonist) is Toby. He’s sort of helping Kara - or, now Liu Xiao Ling - by being sort of a friend, but he’s also kind of working to keep Kara in the orphanage.

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The conflict really started heating up today. All of a sudden Jody’s awake, Mama’s gone, Kara’s in an orphanage, and both Kara and Mama got found out.

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This book, and especially certain parts of it, relates to my life because often I find that people, especially adults, don’t take what I’m saying seriously because they think they know better, and it can be REALLY FRUSTRATING when I’m trying to be serious and they laugh it off.

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Page 208: “But if a backpack can show up when I least expect it, maybe a miracle can happen too.”

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A new set of characters that appeared today are the Gurnsey family. They are definitely antagonists because they are all promoting the idea of Kara having a new American family, which Kara does not want to have.

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The conflict got even more intense today, when Kara got a letter from the Gurnseys in Tampa. The letter said that they were going to be her new family. Kara’s real family, though, has been talking to a Congressman in America, and is trying to bring Kara home to Bozeman.

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So far what is happening is the family that wants to adopt Kara also don’t want to not lose to Kara’s actual parents.

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Like yesterday, and the day before, it hasn’t changed too much over the day. I predict it will soon, though, because either way Kara is going to America.

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The setting right now is in the orphanage and to me it seems cold and maybe small because the way Kara describes it the orphanage sounds poor because they don’t have a lot of stuff also she is always warring her coat I don’t know if it’s because she likes it or if it is cold

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I think it is present day because she’s talking about how she sees all these pictures on Toby’s phone

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I think the new American family that wants to adopt Kara are good because they say in a letter all they want is for Kara to be happy and that if Kara’s actual parents don’t win the case they will adopt her but if they win they want Kara to be with her first family

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I know Kara is a good character because she likes to help the kids with disabilities do things and she says that they all have hope and that their like actual friends

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I actually retract what I said about the Gurnseys yesterday. They seem much nicer than they did yesterday, because of the letter they sent today. They stated in said letter that Kara’s family is the only family they’d be willing to lose to, meaning that they understand Kara’s feeling about the whole ordeal. Now they seem more like supporting characters.

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The most important thing I read today is that the Gurnseys don’t want to make Kara feel uncomfortable, so they’d be willing to lose to Kara’s family to keep her feeling good.

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The setting right now is an assisted-living orphanage in 20th-to-21st-century Tianjin. It hasn’t been changing much over the course of the book.

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My favorite character so far is Mama. She’s my favorite because although she may initially come off as really protective and secretive, it turns out that there is a reasonable explanation for her behavior, and I like characters who are like that - you have to really get to know them to understand them, and you get that chance in the book.

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Page 245: “I know it’s hard to imagine, but I think you’ll be happy in either place because you’re a happy girl.”

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The Gurnseys are heavily impacting Kara - excuse me, Liu Xiao Ling - by adopting her, taking her far away from her family in Montana. I thought they might have been protagonists, or at least supporting characters. But then today, they seemed so oblivious to Kara’s situation, how she was being torn up inside by the whole ordeal. They just didn’t care.

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I thought that the conflict got intense with Jody’s pulmonary embolism. Today, it got so much worse. Suddenly Kara has a new “family”. Who lives in Florida. Which is a long way from Bozeman. So she can’t visit her family. This all happened so quickly, it’s hard to keep up.

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The setting changed today to a hotel room inhabited by the Gurnseys. It has been previously an apartment building in Tianjin, an assisted-living orphanage, and now this. It’s soon going to change again to somewhere in America (either Tampa or Bozeman) I predict.

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This book relates to my life because, like Kara, sometimes I feel uncomfortable but I can’t tell anyone for fear of how they’ll respond.

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That is happening with Kara. She feels like she can’t tell the Gurnseys about the fact that she can only be happy with her real parents, because  she doesn’t want to let them down.

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Page 280: “Here it is: the end I wouldn’t let myself think about.”

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Kara has definitely changed over the course of the book. She has learned a lot about letting go. First, she had to let go of her self-consciousness about her hand to be able to teach Zhao Bin English. Then she had to let go of her quiet life with Mama because Jody came. Finally, she had to let go of her real family - against her will - to live with the Gurnseys.

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Now it’s even worse than yesterday. At least she was still in China yesterday. Now she’s in Tampa, farther from her family than she’s ever been. This must be really stressful...

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Not to say I told you so, but...I told you so. -Me

Unlike most books I read, Kara’s family didn’t end up winning the case, so she has to deal with the Gurnseys. But I like that. I like that the book seems real, that the Gurnseys weren’t only introduced to put pressure on Kara, because that’s what life is like. Not everything turns out the perfect way for a person. In a situation like this, despite what people will say, there’s always going to be a clearly defined winner and loser. Even if you win, the other person can’t. Anyway, back to the setting and somewhat-relevant quote. The setting switched today to the Gurnseys’ house in Tampa, just like I told you it would.

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My favorite character so far, although it seems kinda cliché, is Kara. She’s my favorite because she’s just so silently oppressed. She doesn’t want to, doesn’t deserve to live in Florida. She deserves to live in Bozeman with her real family. But since she’s relatively young, she’s not taken seriously, and thus she is basically told she has to live in discomfort in a place that is to many a place full of comfort.

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Page 293: “Now the city fades behind a haze of clouds that from below looked cottony, but are actually thick air.”

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If I could get rid of any character so far, it would probably be either of the Gurnsey brothers. There’s only one reason for this. They are doing nothing to help the story along. They’re mentioned on all of 2 pages, and even then it’s just comments about their height.

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The only conflict I could really identify today is Kara’s own self-doubts. She thinks that Mama is disappointed in her, which in my experience feels worse than someone being mad at you. That’s preventing her from living her new life to the fullest.

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It hasn’t changed at all since yesterday. Not sure what else to really say.

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I would recommend this book to another person, because it’s one of those rare books where you really feel like you ARE the main character. I’ve read very few books like that. You don’t just “take a walk in their shoes” - no, that’s too common a phrase to do justice to it. It’s not so much about a book; it’s about a feeling. Rather, a collection of feelings. You don’t take a walk in their shoes - you live in their shoes.

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Page 329: “I want to explain, but I can’t make my mouth form words. How a place so beautiful can make me feel so sad.”

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The Gurnseys have changed kind of a lot even over the course of today. Emily especially. She went from the kind of side character that you don’t expect a lot of important things to center around, to a Kara-hating self-absorbed jerk, to a scared, sensitive kid that puts on an intimidating facade to protect from questions.

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Nothing changed.

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This book relates to my life because sometimes I hear people talking about me behind my back and I feel like I can’t confront them about it. It feels terrible.

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Page 361: “It shouldn’t matter about your scar if you’re with your family.”

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I was a little bit confused by the terms used in the epilogue, referring to Marilyn as “Mom” and Mama as “Mama”. But when I figured it out, it just developed so much, this idea of the Gurnseys being Kara’s family. Emily and Rosalie are her sisters. Marilyn and Keith are her parents. The Gurnsey brothers (whose names escape me at the moment) are also her brothers. One word made such a heartfelt statement.

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"You don’t ever really have to be scared in a stand-alone book or movie. The main character has to stay alive in one way or another. It’s their defining quality.”
Daniel Green

The conflict really just sort of resolved itself today. See, when the main character has a problem akin to Kara’s, I find that the arc of the story often goes something like this:

1. Exposition
2. Excerpt of ADL
3. Small issue
4. Small issue resolved
5. Character feels guilty for small issue
6. Character starts acting out of character
7. Inspiring “Not Your Fault” monologue/speech from a different character
8. Character believes other character and feels better
9. Main issue arises
10. Several chapters of dealing with main issue
11. Main issue dealt with
12. Main character still affected in some negative way by main issue
13. Main character insists that they’ll never be the same again
14. Main character is told that’s not true but doesn’t believe it
15. Jump ahead 1-10 years
16. Cue the epilogue
17. Character proven to have changed

The Red Butterfly strayed a bit away from this but for the most part it was pretty similar. The small issue was Kara’s birth defect. The main issue was pulmonary-embolism-into-deportation.

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The setting didn’t change until the epilogue, where it was on an airplane and then in Missoula.

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This book relates to my life because usually, if there’s a problem in my life, it gets resolved pretty quickly.

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Page 382: “...I’m really actually here and I didn’t have to take a bus, sneak away, or live on granola bars. All I had to do was ask.”

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book’s