Reader Response April 1

                                                          Reader Reponse
                                          March 26, 2011                      Tasnim Kazi
            I am responding to My Sister, The Ghost by Linda Joy Singleton. I have read 121 out of 121 pages. This text is fiction. The main characters are Miranda ( protagonist), Heather ( protagonist/ Miranda's stepsister), Melody (protagonist/ Miranda's ghost twin), Steven (antagonist), and Miss Wynde (antagonist). The genre of this text is fantasy/realistic fiction, because there are ghosts who appear and act as humans, and communicate with them. The setting is 31 Scorpio Street in Valley Springs, California. There are many conflicts, but the main conflict is that Heather & Miranda's teacher, Miss Wynde is obsessed with paranormal activity, and she is after the ghost who live in their backyard, with his cat, Velvet. Meanwhile, Steven is telling them to move out of the house for good, but they won't listen. The theme of this book is love. The climax of this story is when Jeremy (Miranda's baby brother) is on the balcony of the house, and is ready to fall when Steven saves him.

Retell...
       The text is really about Miranda and Heather who moved in with their family in a house on 31 Scorpio Street. Unfortunately, their backyard is being haunted by Steven, a 13 year old ghost who lives with his cat, Velvet. She wants to tutor Heather, but Miranda and Heather think that there is another reason she offered to. Snooping around their house can be something to do with Steven. Miranda's ghost twin arrives from Ghostland, with a spy mission to find out more about Steven and what he went through throughout his short, human life. Miss Wynde and Steven are meeting often, and Miss Wynde has planned to reveal him to the world, and finally prove that ghosts are real. Miranda and Heather find out that Steven was an abandoned child, and that explains his rude attitude, and low self-esteem. In the end, Steven saves Jeremy, and he accepts the fact that they are not going to be moving out, and Miranda and Heather forgive him, and they become friends. As for the teacher, nobody believed her and she goes mental. Melody's earth pass expires, and she returns to Ghostland. My favourite part of this text was when Melody and Steven fell in love, it was awkward because they were enemies. Not for long though, because in the end everything was fine. They all got along very well, and they had a made a new ghost friend. The character I like best is Melody. She is outgoing, confident, hilarious, and laid back. Just the kind of person I would like to be around with. In this case though, she's a ghost. As I said before, I enjoy similies and metaphors. I think they add a lot of voice to the text, and make it more interesting and enjoyable to read. An example of a great metaphor would be: "The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play." ( Page 79, Paragraph 6)

Relate...
     If I could talk to one of the characters in this text, I would talk to Steven. In the book, it doesn't really give a detailed explanation as to what happened with him. I would ask him what he has been through, how he really felt, and why he became so arrogant, and rude. You never know, under all that, can be a really loving, caring, and interesting person, who secretly wishes for someone to love him since he never had any real parents/guardians. This text makes me think about foster parents because they treat their adopted kids poorly. You often hear in the news, or read in the newspaper about these incidents that some parent has abandoned their child, or been kidnapped. It's sad when you hear these things, but it's worse for the child that has been through it.

Reflect...

        After Steven saved Jeremy, Miranda and them totally forgave him for what he said and done to him. They became great friends all of a sudden. I question the accuracy of that because it would actually take a while for them to get accquainted again. If I was the author, I would change that part and make it more reasonable. I didn't like that part, because it seemed corny. Before that, they were like great enemies of one another, and then after, they're best friends.