April Raintree - Beatrice Culleton

ELA 30 - Book Report

Read Excerpt

The parents are alcoholic. Anna (the baby sister) goes to the hospital and is very sick. This brings awareness to the family, which causes the children (April & Cheryl) to be removed from the household.

Climax

Cheryl jumps off the bridge and drowns in the river.

I enjoyed this book very much. Shows how people from a broken home grow up. It shows how some people can make it far from coming from a broken home but also shows how it can wreck a person life forever. It shows issues from the family that can carry on in the family for generations. The author did a very good job of writing this book I have nothing i would change. I would reread this book and tell other to read it to. So people can learn the pain and problems with alcoholism and broken homes.

Motivation

Complication

• Cheryl & April get separated. April goes to a bad home and Cheryl goes to a very nice home.
• April doesn't want anyone to know shes Metis.
• Cheryl quits university.
• April gets married and moves away from Cheryl. They end up losing contact with each other.

Complication

Continue

• Bob cheats on April.
• Cheryl is poor; finds unhealthy ways to make money.
• Cheryl ends up in the hospital.
• April goes to the "rough" side of town to get Cheryl's belongings.

Antagonist

Continue...

• April looks like Cheryl.
• April gets raped and Cheryl blames herself .
• Cheryl is an alcoholic.
• Mother dies. Anna dies. Father is still an alcoholic.

The system

• Foster homes
• Child Services
• Society

People

• Bob- holds her back from what she could really be
• Rapists

D.

Intro:

April tries to change the way of her life. Not only for herself but April's son as well. She also wants to help other Native and Metis people.

Beatrice was the youngest of four children. Children’s Aid Society split the family apart when she was three. They put the four children into different foster homes.

Vivian, her second oldest sister, committed suicide in January 1964. Kathy, her oldest sister, committed suicide In October 1980. During this time Beatrice was working as a bookkeeper. She had never planned to be a writer but, following the suicide of Kathy, she felt it was her needed to write a novel loosely based on her own life experiences

Protagonist

Canadian Landscape

Diverse & Dynamic

This book is about two young children being removed from their home. They have to go through many struggles to grow into their unique self. Shows pain, strength, and love. It is a very good story about how hard life can be. Also, that you can make it through anything. You can start at nothing and go to the top. Fiction.

• Her name is April
• Light skin tone
• Long black hair
• Brave
• Strong willed
• Caring
• Secretive
• Protective

This book fits into this unit because it's about personal accounts within the nation. Talks about society landscape not geographical..

This book is very much like the life of the author. She uses real stories and some of her own to make this book. The author lost two sisters her self when they committed suicide.

Person & Societal

The children are removed from the family because of the system.

Canada and her parents determine Aprils childhood. Power is more in the society not the individual.

Shows the issues and concerns with alocholism and broken homes in Canada.

These issues still occur today.

The cultural practices discussed in the book are more social then cultural. It shows how the system will work against people and not with them. The children are being removed from their home and being sent to the orphanage and foster homes because of their parent’s social lives. Also, it shows the characters bad view on Canada mostly just the “system” because they were removed from their family. Also, when they walk around on the streets April is discussed with what she see most days.