Kambili’s jumps back a few months to Palm Sunday. Kambili’s mother tells her that she is pregnant and will be having a baby in October with her father. Mama is pleased with this, because after having Kambili she had several miscarriages.The people of their home village started to gossip, and even to suggest that Papa should marry another woman who could have more children. But Papa stayed, and Mama is grateful he did. She compares him to another man who took a second wife. Kambili agrees that Papa should be praised for this. Kambili doesn’t even like comparing Papa to other men, as she considers him so far above them. Jaja and Kambili talk about their mothers pregnancy. Jaja says “We will take care of the baby; we will protect him.”(pg.23) Papa makes schedules for all of his kids. The schedules show what they are suppose to do everyday. The Standard had been critical of the past government, running stories about cabinet members stashing public money in foreign bank accounts. Papa declares that though the politicians are corrupt, Nigeria needs a “renewed democracy” instead of a military leader. The next day the Standard is the only paper to criticize the new Head of State and ask him to return the government to a democracy. The other papers all praise the new leader for saving the country from the corrupt politicians. Kambili says “God will deliver us,” hoping to please Papa, and he takes her hand.
Kambili family is a very complex family. They all have their issues. The father is very over baring and makes them all do things according to what he says. Jaja is rebelling from his father and he doesn’t take his religion seriously anymore. Kambili tries to stay on her fathers good side. She tries to get his approval in everything she does. So far this book is very good. It show the reality of a family having to go through over barring family and rebelling against them. Wouldn’t you?

Purple Hibiscus

A fifteen year old girl named, Kambili and her brother, Jajai that is older than her live a wealthy life in the city of Enugu. Her father works very hard for them to have a big house and for his children to go to a missionary school. Their mother follows what ever the father says. Their father is a very religious man. With having a very religious father they must always go to church Sundays and pray before each meal. In their church if you don’t go to communion twice it is considered you committed a bad sin. This also looks very bad on your family and brings them dishonor and concerns other church folk around you about your family. Jaja starts to distance himself from God and his family. This action makes his father very mad at him. His father is respected in the church and with Jaja suddenly not getting communion anymore makes him looks bad. After church Jaja and his father have a big fight. A bible was thrown and so was the mothers favorite glass sculpture. That whole night Kambili was wondering if her whole life was about to change. “Maybe mama realizing  that she would not need the figurines anymore; that is when Papa threw the missal at Jaja, it was not just the figurines that came tumbling down, it was everything. I was only just realizing it, only just letting myself think it.” This book is very compelling and a very good read for teens that want to read about two teens who want to break free from their families restricts to live, their own lives the way they choose to.

                                                       Love Your Self 

The author that wrote this book, The Pretty One, wants to get across to her reader is to love yourself no matter what. The main character in her book went through so much in the book. The main character, Megan endures bullying and body shaming from everyone that she knows. Megan wants to be like just like her beautiful, thin, worshiped and confident sister Lucy.  Megan is portrayed as an unconfident and geeky girl that has self esteem issues. Megan throughout the first the first chapter wishes she can be just like Lucy. Then her dream comes true. She becomes more beautiful than her sister. The author tests the power of beauty in this book. Megan learns after returning to school everyone wants to be her friend and all the guys are taking interest in her. Megan loses herself throughout this book. She struggles with finding out who she really is.  At the end of the book she finds out that she loves who she is. Megan also found confidence in herself that she never knew she had. The author  of this book teaches girls to like themselves no matter what anyone says to your does to you because you are perfect the way are. 

Beauty Comes in All Sizes

The Pretty One by Cherly Klam is a well written book about a girl named Megan that goes through a hard time; struggling with weight issues and bullying by the popular girls. Then one day her sister and her sisters’ friends were making fun of her in her dress. That hurt Megan's feelings and she ended up getting hit by a car. After getting hit by a car, she had to undergo surgery that reconstructed her whole face. Megan also lost a lot of weight that made her as skinny as her sister for the first time. When she returned to school, everyone wanted to be her friend because of her looks. She struggled with the power of beauty, which she never had to  before in her life.  Megan and her sister Lucy go head to head for a role in the play and for the “hotties” heart, Drew. Megan loses herself throughout this whole book. She still sees herself as the fat girl she use to be. By the end of the book, Megan realizesshe loves who she is, no matter if everyone else hates her for it.

I would give The Pretty One five stars out of five stars.It is an amazing book for teen girls. The book teaches teen girls to love their bodies. Megan says in the end, “I know who I am. And I’m not an actress. I’m Megan Fletcher. I’m a techie.” This book also teaches girls how to survive in high school with mean girls and just to love who you are.  It gives girls confidence to love their self and not change themselves for a guy. This book taught me a  lot about girl empowerment. The main lesson I learned is  I don’t have to be skinny or pretty to fit in society's preferences.  All girls are perfect the way they are  made. You should never let that stop you from being who you truly are.  

The Pretty One 

Megan struggles with weight issues her whole life and it doesn’t help that her sister is drop dead georgous. She hears her sister laugh at her with her friends after they call her a fat water melon which really hurts her feelings. Megan ends up getting hit by a car and having to undergo surgery that made her beautiful. Now she has to adapt to a new life as the pretty one.

Megan Fletcher goes through so much in The Pretty One by Cheryl Klam. Megan sister Lucy hurts her feels so bad that she runs away and gets hit by a car making her have to undergo massive surgery to reconstruct her face.After the night of that accident her whole life was turned upside down in a blink of an eye. After undergoing surgery her life changed forever in a way that she never knew was possible, that she always dreamed of.  She once was the ugly duckling and now is the beautiful swan. She faces the challenges of being overweight then she loses all the weight and becomes the pretty one. Her family use to never take pictures of her now they  started to take pictures of her and she sees it as a little odd, how her family is treating   her differently. Megan life takes a turn when she comes back to school.The first day back to school goes differently for Megan. She is usually ignored. “As I step inside all the clapping quiets down almost immediately as Lucy’s friends take me in, inch by inch. There they are stunned gasping and a lot of ‘Oh my God.  Look at you…. You look amazing…. You look totally different……” was the reaction Megan got when she went back to school. The book captures her struggling to keep up her new found popularity in her new body. She sees everyone likes the new her instead of the old her instead of the old her and she comes to realize that she may too. Megan’s sister pushes her to look her best always and be her best unlike her old self. Megan seems to be losing her old self that she use to be so fond of.  Megan is learning that beautiful people are treated a lot differently then ugly people.Megan is unsure if their is real feelings for her best friend. Her best friend likes her for her new looks, but she likes the mystery boy that use to talk to her even when she was overweight The mystery boy doesn’t even really care about her new looks all he cares about is who she is. Megan is so dull to realize he doesn’t like her for her body, but for who she is . There are a lot of new found emotions that she is feeling at once. For the first time she wants something for herself instead of stepping down and letting someone else take the spotlight..  Megan and her sister, Lucy are fighting and they never ever fight. Megan’s life doesn’t seem to be getting any easier for her with  all the drama of trying to fit in, boys, Lucy, and learning who the real Megan is.  Being pretty is a powerful thing, but how you handle your beauty is the true power.