SuitabookManga Touch
Jacqueline Pearce
- Reading
- You could read together in short stretches and pause to discuss which expectations Dana brings to the trip. Check in about the peer conflict, then see how the story develops.
- Themes
- Belonging and exclusion: Dana faces mockery from an in-crowd at school and continues to encounter exclusion while in Japan, even as she gains friends. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Expectations and cultural adjustment: Dana hopes Japan will make her feel less like an outsider, but finds it difficult to fit in with a foreign culture and learns to meet people halfway. The outline presents a gap between Dana’s hopes and her experience, without establishing a broader judgement about Japanese culture or cultural adjustment.
- Worth knowing
- Peer exclusion is part of the story: classmates make fun of Dana, and Melissa continues to cast her as an outsider. The intensity and resolution of this conflict are unclear.