ROAR Blog #4:Rattlebone

Courtney Patterson
ROAR Blog #4
December 11, 2009
ROAR Blog #4
Summary: In the book Rattlebone by Maxine Clair, the readers learn about Ms. Brown a little more. She moves in to a room at the Thomas Pemberton Proprietors because she had to leave her previous home. Thomas Pemberton is one of the owners of the place and he is married to Lydia Pemberton, who is the other owner. Lydia is unable to have any children, so one of the rules in the house is that no kids are allowed. Later in the chapter, the readers find out that Ms. Brown is pregnant. When her pregnancy is discovered, she gets a letter that says that she is getting a kicked out of the house by Lydia. Thomas becomes torn by his wife decision to kick Ms. Brown out. Ms. Brown later has to move out of the house and she moves into the reverend’s home.
In the next chapter the readers learn about Dorla Wooten, who is the most serene girl in Irene’s middle school. Dorla’s father had killed her mother, because the mother was seeing someone else while they were still married. This event happened over the summer and Irene was trying to be nice to her, so they could become friends. Geraldine is Irene’s new friend who spends a lot of time with Irene at her house. Geraldine lives in the basement of Miss Jones’ home. Miss Jones’ home is known as the house that people have sexual relationships at. This didn’t stop Irene from hanging out with Geraldine and trying on makeup, clothes, and just having fun with her.
One day Geraldine decided to take Irene up stairs, so they could spy on the people would was in the bedrooms. Irene and Geraldine continued to spy on people, until one day when Irene was looking through a keyhole and she seen a familiar face. It was Irene’s mother and she was shocked. She left Geraldine’s house quickly and she could not speak to her mother for days. Geraldine had got sick one day and she was unable to go to school for weeks. In this time, Irene started to have bad nightmares and she would sleep walk. Irene’s mother worried about her, so she started questioning her about her friends and school. When Irene started to tell her mother where Geraldine lived, her mother realized that it was the same place that she brought that man to. After Irene became well, she went back to school, but she became mean to everyone. She was no longer nice to her friends, Dorla and Geraldine.
*Summarized pages: 71-112

Quote: “Stopping by Geraldine’s house my routine. We taught each other a lot of things, not the least of which was how to do the turkey hop” (Clair 101).


Reaction: My reaction to the quote is that it foreshadows what will come next, because Geraldine’ house taught her a lesson and it was that she should mind her own business. This was the lesson that Irene learned because when she was looking through keyholes, she seen her mother cheating with another man. Maxine Clair’s style is writing is districted. She likes to write with many details and this helps readers visually her words.