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Andrea Lee Dr. Sherry Lit. for Young Adults 12 April 2011

//The Orange Houses // is a novel that I believe many young adolescents would be able to identify with and find intriguing. Tamika, Jimmi, and Fatima are all faced with inner conflicts that force their outside world to be a challenge. Many adolescents also deal with inner conflicts and struggle with the outside world. I found myself relating to each character at some point in time throughout the novel.

A time in my life when I was experiencing an inner conflict that resulted in the outside world being a challenge is when my parents divorced when I was six. I was very young and truly did not understand everything that was happening. I thought it was my fault and I was very distant from everyone including my friends and family. I would not talk much and spent most of my time alone resulting in a strain on the relationship between me and my mother. After a couple months of speaking with the school guidance counselor I began to realize everything was my fault and my inner conflict disappeared along with the outer conflict of my strenuous relationships.

I believe that //The Orange Houses// is relatable for young adult readers on a personal level because it touches on teenage issues such as bullying and feeling isolated in school. A lot of adolescents experience bullying for multiple reasons throughout high school. Adolescents will be able to relate to Tamika in the sense that she is constantly bullied by Shanelle connecting the audience to the characters because they know how Tamika is feeling during the times she is being bullied. Other students may be able to relate to //The Orange Houses// because of the flow and rhythm that the novel is written in. The chapters are short and sweet which also may help students who do not have a long attention span read a couple chapters in one sitting without feeling bored.

The underlying questions of whether Tamika will get the operation, if Fatima’s sister will come to America, and if Jimmi will ever recover from his post war experiences and the losses of his girlfriend and baby pull the readers in making them hope for the positive outcomes for the characters. The novel also shows adolescents that they are not the only one going through hard times in their lives. It shows that everyone is going through something and others problems may be even worse than your own.