Keeper of The Night

Plot Summary- The book Keeper Of The Night by Kimberly Willis Holt is about a girl named Isabel who is a native from Guam. Isabel is the oldest of her two siblings, in this book through short chapters she writes how she deals after her mother dies. In the book Isabel says"My mother died praying on her knees. Her rosary beads were still in her hands when we found her. She left no note, said no good-byes, gave no last hugs or kisses. Only the empty bottle of sleeping pills that had rolled under her bed proved that she'd meant to leave". After her mother dies Isabels family goes to live with there aunt for a while because their dad couldnt stand looking at the door and seeing their mothers ghost. Every night since her mother died her little sister (Olivia) starts to wet her bed and her brother(Frank) starts to writes "I hate you" all over his room. Since Isabel is the oldest, every morning she has to wake up and take the wet bed sheets and towels for her aunt to wash them, so that Olivia wouldnt find out. In the middle of the book Isabel becomes friends with Mary Kelly who is a white girl. When Isabel goes over Mary Kellys house, Mary Kelly's mother is the one who sees her pain and starts to help Isabel and her family. In the end they where in a middle of a party they were having when all of a sudden one of her aunt calls her dad to come quick, when they all go into Franks room they see him on the floor, blood dripping everywhere from his arms and the words " I hat" carved on his arms with no "e" or "you". Isabel thinks that maybe he had died, but he didnt he was just badly hurt.


Characters- Isabel: Isabel is a very responsible and mature girl. She was the one who took care of her siblings, and everybody would say she was just like her mother, but she didn’t think she was anything like her mother. When her mom died she took the responsibility of her younger siblings, she woke them up in the morning, fed them, took them showers and did a lot of good things, I don"t think she was very close to her dad because she never really spoke about him and they called him "Tata" not "dad".



Thought about the book- I didn't really like the ending because the author didn't say what happened to Frank at the end, if Frank came back from the hospital or not. Overall I thought this book was amazing, it was very easy to understand because it had short, very detailed chapters.



Stratergies Used- While I was reading I used Mental Image. Mental Image always helps me when I am reading to understand the point or the lesson of the book. While I read I also made alot of predictions and wrote them down on Post-its and them went back to it if i ever found out the answer to what i was predicting like on one post-it i wrote "i wonder why Frank is always mad and cutting himself" but then i found out that he was mad at Tata because he said that it was his fault for his mothers death.



Author Information- Kimberly Willis Holt is also famous for writing the books MY LOUISIANA SKY and WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN. She was born in 1960, in Pensacola, Florida. Her dad was as a chef for the U.S. Navy, and her mother was a teacher. I think tha Kimberly Willis Holt is a very great author.