The Short Story Squid Girl By Todd Strasser

The short story "Squid Girl" by Todd Strasser, is about a thirteen year old girl named Sierra, who is on vacation with her parents. As a family, they travel to the Caribbean, one of the most romantic places to go. This might not seem all that relevant, but it is. Mood can play a huge role in a story and how you look at the characters. Sierra is different, we all are, but she really is. She has two personalities. One, being the over-dramatic girly girl who loves shopping. The other, being a shy, intelligent girl who does not want to share who she really is. There is always that one classmate, friend, or family member who isn't open to anyone or anything. Sierra finds that she has many dilemmas in her life, but cleans them up in the end. To a

Her crush, or "Travis", is all she can think about. It all started at the beginning of the story, when she was looking through her mom's binoculars. She saw him lying on the beach, before this happened Sierra was talking about the trip. She says, "One thing that will keep you from going totally psycho: the beach"(214). This is somewhat ironic because she said that the beach is the only thing keeping her on the vacation. Also, it just so happens that the one thing that actually keeps her on the vacation is lying on the beach. As you near the end of the story, she leaves the beach, which means she is leaving "Travis". She decides to go for a walk on the beach, in hopes of seeing Travis once more. On her nature walk with the company of her mom, she sees "Travis". He is with his little brother passing a frisbee in the water. As Sierra continues to watch them, the frisbee starts to near her. Once it falls, it is at her feet. Then, every girls dreaded moment arrives. Having to throw a ball to the boy they like. Sierra's pass is decent, enough to impress "Travis". Then, she starts to talk to Travis and his little brother. After many different occurrences of the same scenario, she ends up going on a date with "Travis". The main character's awkwardness is the major trait that attracts Bob to

The Caribbean is one of the most romantic places to go, or visit. It just so happens that they meet on the islands. Sometimes, the mood, or setting in a story has a long lasting affect on the characters. The affect that the mood has on the characters does not change their lives. Their feelings for each other don't really change because of where they are. It is the idea of having to leave at some point that makes the connection stronger. The atmosphere changes some things, like the final insights. The setting forces readers to think about the story in a literary way once they have finished it. Some stories have the same plot, which causes the reader to close the book and "close their thoughts". The Caribbean is very open, which can say something about Sierra's mind. She has no filter, what this means is she does not care about saying anything. She threw some geeky comments at "Travis", but that's what attracted him to