i have read a lot of book in my short lifetime but this be by far the bad . i just get do reading this worthless piece of trash and when i finish it i throw it across the room . i hat it and let me state the reason . 1. the soldier dy . why would the author make the soldier die . why couldn not she have keep him alive like a good love story author would do . i deeply applaud patty for try to claw that fbi agent eye out . 2. ruth get fire . ruth ( the black housekeeper ) get fire and for no apparent reason too . she try to comfort patty and then patty sob dad fire her for no good reason . ruth and anton and patty be the only bright spot in the book . oh and the grandparent too . 3. the perm . yes . the perm . now you people might think why would the perm upset you . well here why . patty mom ask the girl if she want her hair do . patty say no but the mom call mrs. reef ( the horrible hairdresser ) and tell her to give patty a perm . why on god green earth would she do that . why would a mother ask her daughter if she want a perm only to have her get a perm anyway . the mom always pretend that patty have a say when she dosen not have a say at all . she should be give the bad mother of the year award for the stuff she dose to patty . thank god ruth cut her perm off . 4. discrimination and racisem and and prejudious . i hate the discrimination in this book . they use the word beep too much . yes . i know that in those day black be free but have basically no right but come on . why teach todays child that word . it just teach them how to discriminate people . not only be black discriminate but the chinese too . in the book people refer to mr. lee ( a chinese man ) a the beep that be really despicable and last but not least . jew and nazies . i hate the town for spit on a little girl . what be so wrong for her liking anton . she be a 12 year old girl . it be just a crush . like a 12 year old can really love a 22 year old . come on . this isn not lolita . and lolita be a good book not a piece of filth . i be surprise that this movie isn not consider dirty like lolita be . 5. patty go to a reformatory . patty should not have go to that reformatory . refirmitories be for thief and murder and not innocent 12 year old . the teacher or whatever she be call patty an ungrateful and spoiled brat . ungrateful spoil brat my butt . patty be not a spoiled brat because her father and mother never give a rip about her . patty should of got community service or something . she do nothing wrong . she just help a friend . 6. favortisem . the parent play favoritism with their child . patty and their firstborn daughter be clearly the least favored while sharon and the five year old brat be their favorite daughter . the dad say that he want to take sharon to hollywood but clearly forgets his other daughter . 7. the dad . i hat him . he be so mean patty might as well have hitler himself a her father . her dad beat her for no apparent reason and the way he talk to her in the end will make you so mad you will be catch think patty would get good treatment in a concentration camp . well there you have it folks . 7 reason i hate this book . instead of read this book read the diary of anne frank or anything else because i warn you and it be very depressing and it will leave you really mad . the only reason it get 4 star be because of anton and patty and ruth and and the grandparent .