Vocabulary and Notes
 Translucent: (adj.) Allowing light, but not detailed images, to
pass through; clear
 Delicate: (adj.) fragile; easily breakable, easily damaged
 Pamphlet: (noun) a paper book with information
 Ache: (verb) to feel pain
 Whimper: (verb) to cry low or quietly
 Mahogany: (adj.) reddish-brown color
 Angora: (noun) wool; an expensive fabric
 Holler: (verb) to shout or yell loudly
 Responsibility: (noun) something that a person is in charge of or must
take care of
 Innocent: (adj.) without sin; not being morally wrong
 Matinee: (noun) an entertainment, such as a movie, held in the
daytime/afternoon
 Threaten: (verb) to tell someone you are going to do something bad to
them or hurt them
 Pediatrician:
(noun) a doctor for babies and
children
 Obstetrician: (noun) a doctor for
 Plaster
pregnant women
: (verb) to cover heavily
 Prenatal: (adj.) before birth or before giving birth
(having a baby)
 Technically: (adverb) another word for actually
 Appointment: (noun) a meeting set for a certain time or
place
 Gland: (noun) a cell, group of cells, or organ that makes
something that the body needs
 Swollen: (adj.) raised; enlarged
 Now:
- Exposition (beginning):
- Feather- baby’s name (11 days old)
- Setting: starts off in a bed in a room in a city
 Then:
- New York City (Empire State Building)
- 16 year old main character (Bobby) – narrator
- K-Boy & JL (buddies)
- Simile (everybody looks like ants)
- Nia (Bobby’s girlfriend)
- Fred (Bobby’s father’s name)
 Then (continued):
- On 16th birthday- Bobby finds out he will be a father
Now:
Just Frank (dies saving a girl)- sits on corner drinking
forties – asks if Bobby is being a man...makes Bobby
realize he will need to change and change his thinking
- Page 8… simile.. Feather sleeps like…
- Mary (Bobby’s mom/Feather’s grandma)
- Bobby is the one taking care of the baby
- Bobby = overprotective
 Hallucinate: (verb) to imagine and dream unreal
things
 Stance: (noun) standing posture or position
 Blur: (verb or noun) to lose clear vision, to make less
clear; a blurred condition
 Savior: (noun) a person who rescues or saves you from
harm or danger
 Scope: (verb) to look at, read, or investigate, as in
order to evaluate or appreciate.
 Damned: (adj) condemned or doomed
 Tangy: (adj) having a sour, acidic or citrus taste
 Scarf: (verb) to eat hungrily, or fast
 Now:
- Bobby is really struggling- no help from either of his
parents- both too busy
- Bobby doesn’t want to show his mom he is
struggling- cries low so she can’t hear; still feels like a
child sometimes (wants his mom)
- Goes to Coco’s apartment for help- needs to get some
sleep
 Then:
- Bobby tells his friends Nia is pregnant: Initial reaction-
K-Boy and J.L. do not say anything- Bobby is waiting
for them to say something (more afraid of their
reaction than parents’ reaction)
- K-Boy- can’t stop laughing
- J.L.- asks Bobby for money to call 1-800-ISTUPID
Now:
 Bobby is falling asleep in Brit Lit:
 Up all night with Feather
 Walked her, played music for her, talked to her
 After class, Mr. Philips asks about the baby’s mother:
 Where is she?
 Does she go to this school?
 Does she help out?
 After school, Bobby goes to pick up Feather from Jackie:
 Her advice to him: Everything he is going through right
now will change.
Now continued:
 The next day Bobby wakes up for school and
everything is going wrong:
 Feather pukes
 Bobby has to bathe her and take care of her
 Bobby is late for school:
 Leaves Feather with Coco instead of the babysitter
 Bobby is very stressed out at this point.
Then:
 Bobby and Nia are together:
 He still thinks she looks good
 They are wrapped around each other.
 They show affection toward each other.
 They “do it.”
 Damsel (doncella)- (noun) a girl or young unmarried woman
 Distress (sufrimiento (m) angustia (f): (noun) pain, anxiety, or
sorrow
 A damsel in distress: una doncella en apuros
 Imitation (imitación): (noun) a copy of something
 Moat (foso): (noun) a deep hole in the ground filled with water
that surrounds a castle.
 Insane (demente, loco): (adjective) mentally ill or crazy
 Nuke (atacar con armas nucleares): (verb) to attack or destroy
 Verge (borde, margen ): (noun) the edge of something
 Gurgle (borboteo): (verb) to make a bubbling sound
 Hemorrhoid (hemorroides): (noun) a painful swelling of a vein in
the area of the anus, often with bleeding
 Same ole same ole: means “same old same old;” doing something
that you've always done; nothing new; the same old thing
 Shrug (encogimiento ): (verb) to raise one's shoulders to show
lack of interest or acknowledgment
 Caterer (empresa (f) de hostelería; hostelero) : (noun) someone
who provides food and service for a party.
 She is usually a beautiful, young woman placed in a
terrible situation by a villain or a monster and who
requires a hero to come to her rescue.
Now:
 Bobby is taken to jail.
 Afraid of what his mother will do…
 She doesn’t take “bullsh*t” and lives by the rules
 Bobby’s one phone call from jail is to his father:
 Most likely busy at the restaurant
 Won’t be “nasty mad”
 Bobby’s father picks him up and:
 Asks him if he has eaten
 Reminds of the mess he made at home/tells him he messed up
 Reminds him of the responsibilities that await him at home.
Then:
 Bobby is imagining he is in a fairy tale:
 Bobby is the hero; Nia is the damsel in distress.
 Imagining the city life that he loves.
 Doesn’t include a monster.
 Rescuing his damsel from her parents.
 Bobby reflects on his friends
Then:
 Nia sounds frustrated, upset, and annoyed about the
pregnancy.
 Swollen ankles, hemorrhoids, and aching back
 They say they didn’t mean for this to happen.
 Nia’s parents want to send her to her grandma’s house
in Georgia and getting her a tutor.
 Less stress; she has high blood pressure
 Cranky: (adjective) annoyed, bothered
 Drown: (verb) to kill by sinking and cutting off air supply in
water or another liquid.
 Revenge: (noun) an action taken in return for an injury or
offense
 Obvious (adjective) easily seen, recognized, or understood
 Reflex: (noun) any automatic, unthinking, often habitual
behavior or response.
 Eclampsia: (noun) a form of blood poisoning from pregnancy,
characterized by high blood pressure; can cause a coma in the
mother and even death; most often seen in first time pregnancies
and teen pregnancies.
 Irreversible: (adjective) not able to be turned around or changed.
 Persistent Vegetative State: a wakeful, unconscious condition of
patients with severe brain damage who were in a coma.
 Coma: (noun) a state of deep and often prolonged
unconsciousness; usually the result of disease or injury.
 Incubator: (noun) a box designed to maintain a constant
temperature by the use of a thermostat; used for premature
infants.
 NOW:
 - Paul: Bobby’s brother & has two children of his own
 - Paul gives Bobby the same advice as Jackie: everything
will change, everything will get better
 - Paul is the only one who understands Bobby and says
what Bobby needs to hear; single father just like Bobby
(divorced)
 Bobby is going back to Brooklyn to live with his father.
 - Mom is out of town too much (unable to help)
 - Bobby needs a parent who will be around more often
 - He loves Feather more than anything
 Knows he made the right decision by keeping her
 THEN:
 Pg. 97 – “Everytime her mom touches her she jumps like
she is being hit.”
 Example of a?
 What does this tell us about Nia at this very moment?
 Bobby, Nia, and their parents go to a social worker.
Why?
 Discuss adoption
 What is Bobby thinking about in considering giving the
baby up for adoption?
 How is Bobby feeling while the social worker is speaking?
 Bobby is not sure what the right thing is.
 Traditional vs. Open Adoption?
 Open Adoption:
 The birth parents and the adoptive family speak prior to
and even after the child is born, i.e., phone calls and faceto-face visits.
 Some open adoptions are very open, with the adoptive
family and birth parents exchanging contact information
and agreeing to periodic visits by the birth parents as the
child grows.
 It is common for the adoptive family to mail pictures and
letters to the birth parents
 Closed Adoption:
 The adoptive family and birth mother remain
confidential, with no contact prior to or after the
placement of the child.
 It was common to keep adoptions closed; however, in the
early 1980s, adoption began to shift toward more
openness.
 Today, some people believe closed adoptions to be "safer,"
out of a fear that if the birth parents know where the
adoptive family lives, that they will "take back" the child.
 Adoption laws are very clear - once the adoption is
finalized, the adoptive family is recognized as the child's
legal family.
 NOW:
 Bobby is now living in Brooklyn with his dad
 Fred parents Bobby and Feather different from Mary.
 How?
 How is Bobby handling being back in Brooklyn?
 Are things the same? Different?
 PART IV NOTES
 - Nia is in a vegetative coma (vegetable)… won’t ever talk,




walk, smile … brain is dead … this is a result of Eclampsia
- Bobby tears the adoption papers and decides to keep
Feather… she is all he has left of Nia and he thinks this is
what a man would do
- Bobby is considering moving to Heaven, Ohio to live with
his brother
- Why? – Being in NY has too much memory, too big
for him, not the best place to raise kids, needs support from
his brother, needs a change
- Bobby moves to Heaven, Ohio… looking for a new
beginning, looking for peace