In February I read the book How To Make Friends With The Dark by Kathleen Glasgow. This book is about a girl named Tiger Tolliver who was a single child who lived with her mother. She never knew her father and was taught to never ask for him. All until one day she got a phone call that changed her entire course of life. With her mother dead, she’s forced to live in foster homes. That only last so long when she soon finds out she has a half sister. She begins to go through challenges with new people and her new life.

I really loved this book. It was very intriguing to read about Tiger and the way she has to deal with things. The author really emphasizes the emotions she goes through. The author also describes and adds many details to how long the mother has been dead. That extra detail makes Tiger’s mom’s death a lot more painful. The emotions and reality the character goes through is tough, which makes it such a great book.

My favorite character in How To Make Friends With The Dark is Karen. In the beginning of Tiger’s foster care service, she made a good point to Tiger. Page 149, “Life has this, life has that, and then something else comes along again, like a wave. We ride the waves, you go down, you go up, you go down, sometimes you just drift.” This quote shows how wise Karen was with her words. She tried to open up Tiger’s eyes to a different perspective meaning that life isn’t always going to be perfect and the way you want it to be. She was careful with what she said towards Tiger and made sure Tiger would know it would be okay. She was wise and very comforting.

My favorite quote of the book was page 411, “And I do find it comforting that maybe when you die you get back all the things you’ve lost, like your legs, or your parents, or your daughters, or even your mom, and you get to eat all the ice cream you want, finally, and it doesn’t hurt one bit.” This is one of my favorite lines because it shows the way Tiger finally accepts everything and it really shows the progress she has made. Many people deal with death in different ways and it’s really hard for someone to overcome things like that. That quote marked the exact point of where tiger was able to overcome what’s happened. Sometimes people can’t accept fate and do crazy things because of it. It’s truly rare for the ones that can improve and continue to live life.