Rachel Moyes's Reviews > Kirsten Learns a Lesson: A School Story

This book is a joke! (THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Kirsten doesn't speak English, but then goes to school and doesn't seem to have any trouble understanding her teacher--who's speaking English?

THEN, Kirsten makes friends with a Native American girl by exchanging gifts with her. Cut to some time later, and THEY CAN COMMUNICATE. Even though they speak different languages. No difficulty for Kirsten, apparently. But we get NO information on how they learned to speak to one another.

Singing Bird, Kirsten's friend, takes Kirsten to her village to meet her father. Then HER FATHER SPEAKS TO KIRSTEN. Are they speaking English? What??

Finally, after all this, I thought, "Ok, they're going to tie it together by having Kirsten realize that learning English is important because it's worth it to learn to communicate with people you want to be friends with, even if it's difficult." NOPE. Kirsten learns English when her teacher gives her a poem to memorize about being on a boat! Because apparently, that's like her strongest memory, even though, by all accounts, the voyage to America was HORRIBLE, and also HER FRIEND MARTA DIES ON A BOAT!! Which also she apparently has no trauma from!!

In summary, ridiculous.