news+story+of+events+in+novel


 * TODAY’S NEWS **

** Fiction ** ** Lazy cousin Carl-Ray’s deep secret ** ** Absolutely Normal Chaos ** By Sharon Creech HarperTrophy, 230 pages - ** By Kristin McElroy **  Today’s News Sharon Creech had the idea of writing this book to describe her own childhood. In the story, Absolutely Normal Chaos, the main character has three brothers (Dougie, Tom, and Dennis) and one sister (Maggie) and, in real life, Sharon also has three brothers with the same names and a sister, but her real sister’s name is Sandy. Sharon usually added information about where her characters lived, and that would be in Ohio which is where Sharon is from. Sharon Creech usually adds serious topics, like in Absolutely Normal Chaos when she has characters dealing with a death in the family. Sharon often made the story funny and happy so it wouldn’t be so sad.

This book was very interesting because as a reader, I could relate to Mary Lou. She is around my age and also has siblings like me. She had great adventures and funny stories. As a reader, you never knew what was going to happen or what she was going to write about in her awesome summer. When you read Mary Lou’s journal or diary, it’s something that you want to just keep on reading and reading because it’s fun and still serious but, it is like you’re in the book with her and everyone else! When Carl Ray comes to visit and stay from West Virginia to find a job, Mary Lou has to clean his messy room and make his bed every day he lives there! She is always so annoyed with him. Mary Lou just can’t stand it! Mary Lou starts to call Carl Ray names, like cabbage head, meat brains, and she also calls him a moose, because he is so lazy. He just sits around and eats everything and won’t say one word. By the end of the book Mary Lou is nicer about what she says, and is actually trying to get him to finally talk!