Book Report 3

Tiger Eyes

Davey Wexler is the main character in the book Tiger Eyes. She is a 15 year old girl. She has light brown eyes and wavy brown hair.  She has a laid back and "go with the flow" type of personality.  Davey helps keep things running smoothly in her house.

Davey's mother is Gwen and her father is Adam. Davey has a younger brother Jason and  a boyfriend named Hugh . Along with her family members,  Davey has a cat named Minka. Davey and her family live in the town of Atlantic City on the southeast coast of the United States. Her house is located above the grocery store which her family owns.

One day her father was shot in a robbery at their grocery store. At the time of the shooting, her mother was out with Jason. Davey and her boyfriend were the only ones home. Unfortunately, Davey's father's injuries were fatal and he died in her arms. Ever since her father's death, Davey has become a paranoid person who cannot get over the flashback images of her father's tragic death.  She even wishes her family could move out of her home to escape the memories.

One day Davey's Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Walter approach her mother and insist that she and her family come to live with them in New Mexico.  Davey's mom decides that that would be the best thing for her family,  so they go to live with her aunt and uncle. But, Davey becomes more uptight, demanding, and less relaxed around her family. She never wants to do anything with them, always has to have things her way, and it seems as though everything is changing for the bad. So, Davey spends more and more time by herself and likes to go to the canyon to think.

One day while at the canyon, Davey meets a guy who introduces himself as Wolf. He addresses her with the name "Tiger" because she has the eyes of a tiger. wolf and Davey get to know each other as they begin to meet routinely at the canyon. Wolf understands Davey and her feelings because he is going through most of the same experiences with his dad who is dying of cancer. They become friends and Davey learns to trust someone again.

 After some time passes, Davey is also willing to listen to her uncle's advice. He tells her that it might be helpful for her to deal with her father's death by volunteering to work at the Los Alamos Medical Center. Davey decides to give it a try and applies to be a  volunteer. Because her uncle is an employee of the hospital, she gets a job as a volunteer. She begins volunteering on a regular basis, and then, one day she meets a patient named Mr. Ortiz who is dying of cancer. Davey and Mr. Ortiz seem to have some kind of connection, so she visits him every day. While volunteering she discovers that Wolf is Mr. Ortiz's son. Between the development of her relationships with Mr. Ortiz and Wolf, Davey begins to relax, and returns to her original personality. Davey starts to laugh more, have a better outlook on life, and begins to open up to others more. Everything seems to be going great until the day she comes to visit Mr. Ortiz and his room is empty. Not only does she learn that Mr. Ortiz has died, but that her best friend, Wolf, will soon be leaving. Wolf explains to Davey that before his dad became ill, he had been away at school. Now that his father was no longer in need of his assistance and support, he would need to return to college to finish his education. Davey is devastated.

Through Davey's feelings of loss and devastation, she is reminded of the expression that her father used to say to her. He would tell her to always remember that "once one door closes another one is opened."  So the door is opened and Davey's life takes a new turn, she is able to let go of her pain and return with her family to their hometown. They move into a new apartment with a beautiful ocean view.  As the days pass back in Atlantic City, Davey returns to her normal self.  She finds her old  "happy, go lucky" personality and begins spending time again with her boyfriend, Hugh.

I absolutely loved the book Tiger Eyes! I really got into this story because it was about a teenage girl around my age.  I found it easy to relate to because I could see myself as the main character at times. I could feel happy when she was happy and sad when she was sad. I could understand the book very easily because the author used very descriptive words and I thought it was written at a good level for me. I enjoyed the book because the plot line was fast paced. It only stays on a subject long enough to get the point across then it moves on to the next section.

My favorite part in this book was when Davey learned that Mr. Ortiz was Wolf’s father. In the story I learned that these two characters were related, and it was a surprise to me.  I was not expecting those two characters to be related so, I thought it added some interest and excitement to the book. I also liked this section of the book because it's the turning point in the main character's personality development. I also liked this part because it has a happy ending.

I would strongly recommend the book Tiger Eyes to any teenage girl that likes fictional stories about relationships, personal problems, inner feelings, and thoughts. In this book the main character is a young teenage girl named Davey who is dealing with these types of issues. Her problems are moving away from her hometown, her dad dying, and her best friend moving away. Davey’s feelings move from one extreme to the other. At times, she is a really joyful, excited, happy, caring, and loving person and at other times she is scared, mad, paranoid, and even a nasty person. Her thoughts and feelings move and change by  what’s happening to her family and by what road blocks life brings to her on the way. She also struggles with why it seems as though everything is going wrong only in her life. These are the things that make the character interesting and the story eventful.

Even though there are teenage boys and adult males in this story, I would not recommend this book to most of the guys my age because it focuses so much on a girls perspective.