Summary By Eve Bunting

Introduction

The book written by Eve Bunting, depicts the events that happened in 1992 when riots occurred in Los Angeles and the resultant consequences. The story revolves around a mother and her small boy by the name of Daniel, who were forced to vacate from their residence due to riots of Los Angeles that resulted from a ruling given by a jury that passed on the acquittal of the four police officers from Los Angeles. In order to understand the book, it is important we look at the events that led to the theme behind the book. On March 3rd, 1991 in Los Angeles, four police officers of white descent brutally assaulted a black man by the name of Rodney King which was captured on video. King was assaulted at night by the white officers and the

According to Bunting, (1994), hatred between people of different cultures is portrayed in the book when Daniel’s mother states that she does not buy goods from her neighbor’s (Mrs. Kim) store because she prefers to shop from stores of people her own color (“her own people”). Towards the story end, Daniel’s mother befriends Mrs. Kim and changes her attitude towards her, even though she previously despised and avoided Mrs. Kim as a result of cultural/racial differences (Rauch, 2006). We should include the perspectives of this children’s book in the week’s session because the theme delivered by the book revolves around coming together to assist each other in times of hardship, fear or troubles as evidenced by the scenario where the two families combined efforts in the riots to look for their cats. The omission of these perspectives from previous sessions was because prejudice against people of color was and is still a topic that is not truly talked about and addressed the way it should be. Prejudice remains an issue that does not draw the required attention it deserves until a situation occurs that escalates the issue such as the Rodney King

Eve uses the concurrent events of the protests to channel the positivity brought about by the riots and that is friendship and acceptance. Despite their differences over the years, the two families are forced by circumstances to combine efforts to look for their lost cats and in the end offer friendship to each other. This is illustrated when Daniel’s mother changes her attitude towards Mrs. Kim, whom she admits she despised and that is why she preferred to shop from people of her own color and finally accepts her as a person and friend. Even though the two families are from different cultural backgrounds and do not get along, the loss of their homes and pets brings them together to help each other out. Remember that their cats also did not get along coupled with their owners (Henwood, 2014; Bunting,