e best deal was the plate frozen with food already on it. A meat, two vegetables and a dab of dessert.” (25) Planning ahead kept Ellen busy, and farther away from her father.Ellen developed good friendship skills throughout the book. At the beginning of the book Ellen is very bossy when she plays with Starletta. Ellen takes Starletta’s toys home with her and fix them because she could not stand playing with broken toys, even though she knew Starletta didn’t like when she did that. By the end of the book Ellen also feels sorry about how she treated Starletta, and she really wants to apologize to her for acting so racist. On page 100 Ellen proclaims, “Lord I do owe her.” After Ellen invites Starletta to her new mama’s house, she goes out of her way to make sure everything would be perfect for Starletta because all she wanted was to let her have an enjoyable time. Ellen had her mother make Starletta towels with her name sewn into them. Her friendship skills also help her to get away from her father and spend more time with people who really care.Based on Ellen’s responses to her circumstances in life and her developmental assets, one would think that her future would be bittersweet. Ellen was a nice girl throughout the whole book. She may never grow up to have a family because of the family that she grew up in was such a negative environment. It is very possible that she will grow up to be an art teacher. One might think this because she looked up to her art teacher so much and admired her; Ellen’s mind is full of creativity and ideas. When Ellen’s school found out that her dad was abusive to her they put her up at her art teacher’s house.Ellen says “I came a long way to get here but when you think about it really hard you will see that old Starletta came even farther… And all this time I thought I had the hardest row to hoe”(126) Like Ellen did, it is important...
