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12/03/2026 9:52 am
“Why children of immigrants experience guilt-- and how strategies to cope” by Sahaj Kaur Kohli is a interview about the guilt children of immigrants feel, she talks about how there is healthy and unhealthy guilt, and how you should deal with it. Like identifying why you feel this guilt, “There’s also this sense of a thriver’s guilt or this guilt of growing, healing, accessing resources and opportunities that maybe our parents didn't have or our family and other parts of the world don't have access to.” (Kohli).My character can relate to feeling guilt because she is building her life and feels like she is abandoning her family.
In “Brighter Than the Sun” by Daniel Aleman, the main character is a young girl named Sol, who has to traverse across the border every day just to get a proper education. She attends school in San Diego, California. She is financially struggling with her family. She has to wake up early, about 5 am, to cross the border to arrive at school on time. Sol is the only person in their family who is a US citizen. This is because her mother was struggling with the pregnancy and could not go through with the pregnancy with the medical care they offer in Mexico. She moves in with her friend, Ari. Their mothers became friends years prior, because Sol and Ari were friends when they were younger, making it inevitable. Sol’s mother died a few years ago, making her take on the responsibilities of the family. She conflicts with herself, needing to get a job to help support her family financially, while needing to support them in their emotional or medical state.
The second half, starting on chapter 8 ½ Diego and a boy (Who cut the line and started being mean) get into a fight. The boy ended up needing to go to the hospital and him and his family are suing Diego (Diego got suspended for 5 days). Sol is particularly worried about this because he could be expelled, leading to not being able to go to a decent school. She goes back to Mexico for the weekend instead of hanging out with her newly acquired friends. When she goes back home, she brings back a pay check. Her (I forgot what she calls her, its her grandmother) is making bacon, she assumes that it was found in the back of the fridge at the restaurant and her father didn’t want it to go to waste. After she brings the pay check, her family can cook the holiday meal for the restaurant. They have a very busy day, so the rest of her family (Her brother and grand mother) go and eat at the restaurant with them.
What makes your character unique, likeable (or not), and what can you assume about the character by the end of your book?
For participants:
-Never use a peer’s real name, only use their username
-Respond to the question based on your book, not your personal opinion
-If the question doesn’t directly apply to something that appears in your book, be clear about what you’re seeing instead
-Make sure to include a summary of your book so far
-Include a quote with the proper citation to give context to your answer
-Acknowledge your lead’s reply to your response with a comment that clarifies information, offer a question to them about their book, or simply give a thumbs up
To exceed: Incorporate a quote from a different Ted Talk or a different CommonLit text that has not yet been discussed in your group
12/03/2026 11:42 am
In my book, The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo, the main character Xiomara, or X for short, lives in Harlem with her mami and papi, along with her brother “twin”. Xiomara’s mother is from The Dominican Republic, making X Dominican too. X struggles with her own beauty, her Dominican roots are strong, and as she’s becoming a young woman, her body changes to resemble such. X is a sophomore in high school, with the body of an attractive woman… This tends to cause problems for her. Xiomara struggles with this because she doesn’t want all the attention she gets, and it isn’t exactly nice attention either. The text reads, “The other girls call me conceited. Ho. Thot. Fast./ When your body takes up more room than your voice/ you are always the target of well aimed rumors, which is why I let my knuckles talk for me.” (Acevedo 5). This quote shows how Xiomara is unique, and beautiful, and she cares about words, she is a poet after all. However, she gets picked on, harassed, assaulted even, because of it.
18/03/2026 10:36 am
I think he is different because very accepting of new people and their cultures and i think by the end of the book he will be very familiar with their culture for example “could we have a three, a five, and an eight?and a side of sambusas,please ? myla said to the skinny guy. He nodded punched numbers into his register. He pointed to the case where we could get bottled drinks.”(pg183)
Summary in the book out of nowhere tom is a high schooler that plays soccer and is a captain for the team in maine where lots of somalis have been moving to lately just like his friend saeed that also paly soccer but it hard for americans to communicate with no english speaking people cuz they dont understand each other and then after getting in trouble he had to do community service at a somali community center and learns lots about there culture
31/03/2026 12:54 pm
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon is about two teenagers, Natasha Kingsley and Daniel Bae, who meet during one important day in New York City. Natasha is very practical and believes in science and facts. She is trying to stop her family from being deported back to Jamaica, so she doesn’t believe in fate or love. But Daniel is romantic and believes in things happening for a reason. He is also dealing with pressure from his parents, who want him to choose a traditional career instead of following his dream of becoming a poet. When Natasha and Daniel meet in New York, Daniel thinks their meeting is meant to be, but Natasha believes it is just a coincidence. As they spend the day together, they talk about love, destiny, and their futures. During their time together, they begin to form a strong connection that makes Natasha question what she believes and makes both of them think about what really shapes their lives. Natasha finds out the lawyer failed, so she’s still getting deported. Daniel goes with her to the airport, and they confess they love each other before she leaves. Years later, they’ve moved on, but by chance, they meet again on a flight, suggesting fate brings them back together.
What I think makes my character unique is that in the first half, she was hard set that she did not believe that fate was real, she only believed in science, but once she met Daniel, she started to change because her perspective changed, and the things that were going on around her did too. So, what I think she might be like at the end of the book is that she will believe in more things and maybe be more open to people's opinions.
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“For the second time today, I’m letting go of the details. Maybe I don’t need them.” (Yoon 233). This shows that she is letting go of all the details and not having it be all perfect like she likes it. |
03/04/2026 2:59 pm
This is a very good insight. My character, Sol, never explicitly got bullied. People would look strangely at my character, but they did that to all the people who crossed the boarder to go to school. Even towards the end, she was accused of stealing from her work. She was ostracized by all her coworkers, other than her work friend, Nick, who knew she would never.
rbussiere27 reacted
08/04/2026 3:42 pm
In my book "The Sun is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon, the two main characters are very different, yet both likable. The girl, Natasha she has the unique experience of having to be the only one saving their family from deportation. She found an immigration lawyer, she sets up the meetings, and helps the case. While Daniel, the boy she meets randomly on the way to a meeting, is having a meeting with the somebody from Yale, with the pressure of his parents.
13/04/2026 2:05 pm
Very good insight! My character is similar in the way of being accepting. Sol, my character, crosses the border everyday and meets many new people. She knows how it feels to be judged, and tries her best to make sure no one else feels that way.
13/04/2026 2:05 pm
My character also goes through romantic emotions, such as going on dates with her “friend” Nick. She met Nick at the job, and instantly got along with him. He was the one who taught her how to do her job, and even took the fall for her when she made a mistake. She was very set on making enough money to save her family's restaurant, not love.
