Written by Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Fever 1793, which won a Margaret A. Edwards award, The Impossible Knife of Memory takes a turn to examine the reality of war for the children of today’s soldiers. Hayley Kincain and her father have arrived back to the town where her father grew up. The main purpose of the move was so Hayley could attend a proper school, but it isn’t that easy for her.
Hayley has to deal with her supposed ‘step-mother’, Trish. Trish isn’t the best parental figure out there. She raised Hayley while her father was serving the military but walked out on them years ago. Now she manipulates and attempts to control Hayley’s life, once again, by providing the principal with information that her father was hiding. Who does she think she is to interfere, now?
“She’s not my stepmother. (…) She’s a cheating, alcoholic a**hole who can’t open her mouth without lying. She… You can’t talk to her about me. Can I go?”
-Hayley Kincain to the principal, about Trish, page 27.

Due to her father returning from the war in Iraq, he isn’t in the most stable condition. Having no job and unable to escape from the evil spirits that haunt him, he isn’t the best father, either. He has PTSD and chooses to depend on drugs to escape from his terrible memories.
“PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, is a mental disorder that is characterized by failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event” (Mayo Clinic). PTSD often affects soldiers, due to the fact that they’re in the battlefield witnessing many gruesome things that not many people can handle.
PTSD can cause anxiety and flashbacks, nightmares, and the inability to participate in something that can bring back the trauma. They may have behavior changes, emotional detachment and much more. Due to Hayley’s dad experiencing that, he isn’t the same father she had before he went to the army.
Picture this; Your father entered the army years ago and finally returned, but he’s not the same person anymore. He’s different. You could say he’s broken or being haunted, the past lurks, waiting to take its chance and pounce. What do you think would happen if that happened to your own father? Would he be able to handle it?
Hayley Kincain is honestly the most relatable character out of all the characters I’ve met when reading different books. Unlike many protagonists who have a life changing moment where they gain powers, meet their soulmate, etc, Hayley struggles to get over regular things. For example, she wants to help her father cope with PTSD and wants to think about the future. She has hope for the future.
Hayley is in conflict with her own self. If anything, we’re able to do a character analysis on Hayley Kincain, analyzing her entire persona, personality and choices. I believe that‘s the most interesting thing about it, the reason why I decided to keep reading. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to find a protagonist that doesn’t have powers or their lover to save them from their problems, to deal with the true reality of the world and it’s dark side. Find out what happens next in the library.
nder. It often leads to misunderstanding for the parents or other people. Fortunately, Jazz’s parents approve of him and support him to completely change his gender. This is where he gets his name, Jazz. He later completely dresses up as a girl and does whatever a girl does. At first, everyone besides Jazz’s family were confused, the school still considered Jazz a boy so they made him join the boys soccer team and such. However, they have finally concluded to think of him as a girl. What will happen next? Will there be any consequences for Jazz? Find out the ending in the library.
r, Monica was at first excited about playing with Keisha. She gave her attention for example, giving her toy blocks to play with and dolls so she and Monica can play together. However, Keisha walks away from Monica and refuses to play with her. This isn’t the only time where Keisha refuses to communicate. Her parents have tried talking to her but Keisha ignores them. It concerns them very much, which leads them to taking Keisha to a doctor. When the doctors are done with examining Keisha, they reveal that Keisha has autism. Keisha’s family were confused, what did autism mean? The doctor states that autism means that the person will need a lot of extra help learning to do basic things that are easy for us. It was tragic for Keisha’s family, especially the fact that they didn’t understand what autism meant and how it would affect her.
t’s presence and it wasn’t good. They complained to the mayor, who was obviously frustrated at the the rat situation. However, one day there was a rat infestation at the subway. People were upset over this, suddenly, there was a man with a pan. He played it and then everyone was dancing. How did this happen? Due to his music. Everyone’s worries disappeared and even the rats were dancing. Soon, he ended the music which resulted in people stop dancing. They questioned him, and found out that the steel pan was the answer to the peace of Harlem.
a book. He was curious enough to go find out why he is reading a book. As he questions it, he thinks it’s related to his electronics. Sadly, he is obsessed with electronics but on the other hand, Monkey isn’t. Let’s just say Monkey is a bookworm. Fascinating, isn’t it? Anyway, he asks Monkey if you can charge a book, zoom in or text with a book. Monkey keeps denying and simply says,”It’s a book“.
When it turned to night, Sam was the leader of the library. He would go to the bookshelves and read picture books, chapter books and more. There were so many books that he could read, it was endless. Information filled his mind, he was probably the most smartest mouse of them all. His imagination was incredible, one day, Sam decided it was time to write a book of his own. He folded over some little squares of paper and found a pencil. He started writing, he wrote about what’s it’s like being a mouse and he drew some little pictures to illustrate it.
Did you know that in Greek myths, Athena created spiders because someone tried to challenge her to a weaving contest. Now they are cursed to weave webs and look terrifying.
and others.