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29/03/2026 7:35 pm
In the short story From Scratch, by Susie Castellano, Priya, an Indian teen, moved from India to Texas and felt like an outsider at her own school. But then she realized that she is not the only one who feels like that.
In my book Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian, the main character, Tom, is a captain of the Chamberlan soccer team. Chamberlan’s rival school, Maquoit, is a very good team. Chamberlain isn't the best team, but they play their hardest against Maquoit. They finally beat Maquoit with the addition of some refugee soccer players who are super talented. After Maquoit loses to Chamberlan, they start an investigation into whether the refugees are eligible to play soccer, and it may lead to the players missing games in the postseason.
In the short story Priya and her mother were surprised because they made the assumption that none of the girls they saw were muslim because none of them looked like they thought they should. “Priya flashed her mother a quick look. “Muslim?” The faces of the people at school flickered. She didn’t remember seeing any dark-haired Muslim girl.” (Castellano 4). In my book Tom is upset when he has one of his friends turn on him and go behind his back. This was a level of his friend he never thought he would stoop to. “The people at Maquiot tell Coach somebody tell them I made up the age! I don’t!”... Alex Rhodes. You two-faced son of a…” (Padian 236).
Does your character ever assume something of someone that turns out to be wrong? Did they learn from this assumption?
03/04/2026 11:36 am
In my book, “Breathe and Count Back From Ten” by Natalia Sylvester Veronica has lived in the U.S. since before she can remember so she's never had to think much about fitting in unlike her mother and father. They push her to be perfect and do nothing wrong, but while they think it's for the best they are really taking away all her freedom and choices. Rather than her trying to fit in because of her ethnicity she has to fit in due to her hip injury; her hips are lopsided, and she just found out her parents have been keeping a huge secret from her. She finally gets her dream job but her family won’t accept it so she is forced to lie to them. Also due to the new worsening condition of her hip she has to learn when to figure out if she is actually okay or if she is just being brave for others. The job she thought she had wanted and she fought for, the place she thought would truly accept her with her scars ends up trying to cover up the part of her she's always been most self-conscious about. In the end she finally starts to live out her dream, her parents accept what she chooses and she finds out the decision she thought was going to be made for her was actually something she could finally control.
Vero never really had an opportunity to assume something of someone, rather she was always the one people made assumptions about. Due to her hip people always assume she’s fragile or not capable, when in reality she is very strong willed and is capable of much more than people think, “Like admitting I've needed crutches dispels the myths we want to believe about people”(Sylvester 228). This shows how she feels towards people, because of what they all think or assume instead of thinking about how strong she is. The Ted-Talk that connects with this is, "What's missing in the American Immigrant Story” by Elizabeth Camerillo Gutierrez . This connects because it shows how people always assume how others' lives are, “And that's because for the most part, we want to see ourselves as idealists and as people who do what they believe in and pursue the things that they find the most exciting. But the reality is very few of us actually have the privilege to do that.” This shows how they assume and that those assumptions can easily be proved questionable and wrong.
06/04/2026 10:28 am
How does judging people or getting the wrong impression set the characters up for failure in your book?
mpetersen27 reacted
09/04/2026 8:35 pm
jgreenwood
In my book “the sun is also a star” by Nicola Yoon, the main character Natasha meets a boy in a record store named Daniel. Nataha kind of stereotypes Danial as a smart asian kid in a suit, but he ends up being a poem writing nerd that doesn’t actually want to be a smart doctor. 'Would you like to be famous and how?’ “You first’ I tell him. “I’s be a famous poet in chief.” (Yoon 90) This relates to the ted talk “sweet, difficult sounds” by I.M. desta because it is about a young girl who is new to an american school and is having a hard time talking in front of her classmates. Everyone just assumes she can’t understand English, “Can you speak English?’ Ashley asked. Nothukula stared at her. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand English.” (Desta). Nothukula can speak and understand English, but people assume she can't.
