How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Mother, it seems to me, could. So could Grandma Kato or Obasan. But not, I think, Aunt Emily, though perhaps that is not so. She is too often impatient and flustered, her fingers jerking her round wire-rimmed glasses up her short nose. (13.9)
Now, that's not a nice thing to say about your Aunt, is it? In this scene Naomi is wondering which of her family members could be brave even in scary situations, like in fairy tales. Why do you think Naomi says that Aunt Emily is not fit to be a fairy tale heroine?
Quote #5
All this talk is puzzling and frightening. I cradle the rubber ball against my cheek and stare up at the white tufts like tiny rabbit tails stuck all over the bottom of the mattress. I am thinking of Peter Rabbit hopping through the lettuce patch when I hear Stephen's lopsided hop as he comes galloping down the stairs. (13.34)
Remember how we said that Naomi is a book nerd even before she can speak? Well then it makes sense that she would use fairytales to comfort herself. In fairy tales lots of scary things happen, but there is always a happy ending.
Quote #6
In one of Stephen's books, there is a story of a child with long golden ringlets called Goldilocks who one day comes to a quaint house in the woods lived in by a family of bears. Clearly, we are that bear family in this strange house in the middle of the woods. I am Baby Bear, whose chair Goldilocks breaks, whose porridge Goldilocks eats, whose bed Goldilocks sleeps in. Or perhaps this is not true and I am really Goldilocks after all. In the morning, will I not find my way out of the forest and back to my room where the picture bird sings above my bed and the real bird sings in the real peach tree by my open bedroom window in Marpole? (17.25)
Which is Naomi? Is she Baby Bear or is she Goldilocks? Or is she both?