1. Group G - asullivan25 (replacement A)

In my book Rez Ball by Byron Graves, Tre Brun has dreams of leading his school's team to a state championship for basketball and making it to the NBA. He had an older brother who died in a car accident who was the leader of the team. Almost everyone knows him as Jaxon's younger brother, except Khiana who came to the school recently and are spending a lot of time together. Tre works really hard for the sport he loves and just needs to make varsity for the first time. 

Although the characters in my novel don't have to assimilate or meet certain expectations, Tre has to meet certain expectations in his family. Tre’s father and older brother were all involved and were really good at basketball. So naturally it was expected that he should be too. Although not as good as them. “He’d cross people over so bad they’d fall over, then hit a jump shot on them. Only one to ever be as good as him was your brother.” (Graves 75). His family mentions that his dad was one of the best and how his brother was able to beat him. Tre wants to live of to the expectations of being a great basketball player, but he also wants to exceed the expectations.

In my book Rani Patel In Full Effect by Sonia Patel it talks about a young Indian girl in Hawaii. Rani is bullied and teased for who she is. She lives with her mom and dad, who are in an arranged marriage. One day Rani is out and catches her father cheating, which was something she has suspected without proof.  This event turned her life upside down, and she shaved her head in response. Rani’s father is a terrible person, who has abused her and caused suffering to the family. He emotionally abuses the mother which makes her constantly want to end her life. Growing up Rani has always fixed their marriage problems, and stopped her mother from ending her life countless times. During these times, her dad sat watching, doing nothing. Rani knows this is a situation she can't fix. The mother  has always obeyed her husband, done all the work, and overworked herself. She never stood up for herself, choosing silence. However the father comes home and says he wants the girl he’s cheating on her with to come and live with them. After Rani and her father have an argument for the first time about the situation. The mother finally stands up for herself and says she wants a divorce and tells him to get out. Coming from a culture where husbands are god and arranged marriages are the only option, this is huge. Rani is struggling with all this change but she pushes it down because she thinks it could be worse and she shouldn’t be complaining. She uses music, writing rap, and poems to cope. After every event so far with her dad and her mother, she goes in her room and listens to music and writes rap/ poems/ She also works a lot at a shop, and at a restaurant. At the store she meets an older man that is 28 years old who she has fallen for. The man's name is Mark.  They have become friends, but Rani wants more. She tells him about how she writes rap/ poems. This is something no one else knows about her. As she expresses herself with this man they grow closer. 

In my book, the main character Rani moves from India to Connecticut when she was young. She had to assimilate quickly, to avoid being made fun of and bullied too much at school. However it was fruitless, because she got bullied and teased constantly and mercilessly, because she was different. “I’ve heard worse. Back in Connecticut, the white, black, Latino, and non-Inaian Asian kids bonded over their relentless tormenting of me. Hey brownie, I saw you eating a brownie. EWWWW. Gross, you cannibal. Feather or Curry? Must be curry because you stink. Go back to India, you cow lover.” (Patel 50-51). People were cruel to her because she was from somewhere completely different. She needed to quickly assimilate how spoke to be able to communicate. How she dressed, expressed herself, and what she ate could change if it brought more problems. However it wasn’t as important, and could be changed later. If she wanted to be made fun of, she needed to assimilate how she ate. Rani could eat what they eat at school instead of her cultural food.