Summer Reading Journal Prompts! !
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How are the characters developing? Do I dislike certain characters? Are some characters dynamic? Are some flat? Do the characters change over the course of the story? How are the events or other characters influencing or motivating the characters? !
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Many of the characters develop in their own way throughout the book. For example when Ellie Hathaway first arrived at the Fisher farm she was completely opposed to the idea of living and participating in the Amish community. She wanted nothing more than to go home to her nicely air-conditioned apartment and watch television, she had not intended for anything to get personal. Yet throughout the months leading up to the murder trial, Ellie became unexpectedly close to some of the people in the Amish community, she attended the church gatherings, participated in the daily chores, and essentially morphed into the everyday protocol of an Amish lifestyle. She felt that she needed to gain the Fishers trust in order for them to open up to her and tell her what she needed to know for the trial. She proved her trust through doing her chores, she got up at five a.m. every morning to milk the cows, she helped maintain the horses, and even picked tobacco leaves for hours in the burning sun. At some point during her stay, Ellie didn’t do these chores so she could gain something, but so that others would. She genuinely wanted to help the Fishers, even if she didn't realize it, she was living the Amish way, and that means putting others before yourself. Ellie was not the only character who was able to develop throughout the novel. Katie Fisher, the young women accused of neonaticide, struggled a lot throughout the novel. She struggled through her pregnancy, and the birth and going through the murder trial. If it weren’t for Ellie, Katie might have ended up in jail for life. When Ellie first came to the farm Katie was not happy about the situation at all. The Amish don’t welcome outsiders into the community very often or very easily and Katie was even more against the idea of having Ellie, as a lawyer, stay in their house, because the Amish don’t like to get involved with the English court. Yet as time went on Katie realized something that changed their relationship completely, “She hadn't expected to like Ellie. At first Katie had been furious to find herself stuck with a jailer who didn't trust her, to boot. But as uncomfortable as Katie might have found the situation, Ellie must have found it even more uncomfortable.” pg. 206. From then on Ellie and Katie shared a more profound bond than anyone else on the farm. Katie learned to open up to Ellie and realized that she could trust her even if she was an outsider. By the end of the novel it was are to say that they had a mother-daughter kind of relationship.!
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There were certainly a few characters I disliked very much in the book, including
Stephen, Ellie’s ex-boyfriend of eight years. You can beat around the bush all you want but in the simplest terms Stephen was a jerk. He didn’t really care about Ellie at all, he

liked the idea of having a girlfriend but never really wanted a true relationship. In the beginning of the book Ellie was on her way to an important meeting that Stephen had set up when her car broke down and she had to bring it to the shop. Stephen proved that he couldn't care less about Ellie when he called her not too soon afterwards.
“‘Where the hell are you?’ Stephen barked when I answered the phone. ‘My car died.
On the middle of the highway. In front of an oncoming truck.’ ‘For Christ’s sake, Ellie, thats why there are taxis.’ I was shocked silent. No ‘My God, are you all right?’ No ‘Do you need me to come help you?’” pg. 18. Ellie had finally had enough, if thats the way he was treating her she was done with him. There is no excuse to treating anyone like that, Stephen was an egotistical, selfish, imbecile. Although I definitely