This is a remarkable memoir that I think everyone should read.

Entry 5

The title, The Glass Castle, refers to the house the father, Rex Walls, planned to build for his family to live in. From the time they were very young, he told the children that he would have his engineering skills and mathematical skills come together in one great project; a huge house in the dessert. He planned on it having a glass ceiling, glass walls, and staircase, from which The Glass Castle gets its name. It would also have solar power electricity, and a water-purification system. Together, he and the children drew out blue prints for it, which he carried everywhere he went. Unfortunately, they never went past this stage.

Entry 4

Jeannette and her siblings, with long hard work, demonstrated great strength and determination. For months they worked hard and saved up money, coming up with plans to go to New York City. First the eldest daughter, Lori, made her way there after graduating high school. Soon, she found a job and apartment, made lots of friends, and found new hobbies such as fencing. At the end of her junior year of high school, Jeannette moved to New York City with Lori. The third child of the Wells family, Brian, also moved to New York after completing his junior year. The fourth child, Maureen, at the age of twelve also moved to New York City with her siblings. She lived with Lori and attended a public school. Brian and Jeannette also had their own apartments. Three years later the parents also moved to New York City; they were homeless. The whole family continued to live there for the rest of their lives, except for Maureen who moved to California after being released from a hospital. The children followed their dreams and starting their own families while still keeping in touch with their parents.
I think making such a bold move as to leave your home before you finish high school, or just after, and move to a big city like New York takes a lot of courage. To save up money and come up with plans while deciding what your want to be when you grow up takes a lot of determination, also. I hope that the attitudes of these children, with their positive thinking and strength, reflect upon other readers, since I know I've been affected. This book is a great read, and it makes me want to try harder at whatever I'm doing, since anything you sent your mind to is possible.

Entry 3

The narrator, Jeannette Walls, is now growing up. From the beginning of the book when she was just about three years of age, she believed that everything was an adventure; moving from place to place, riding in an U-Haul trailer, exploring in the dessert. When Jeannette becomes a fifth grader the family moves to Welch, West Virginia, and the harshness of reality begins to set in; realities such as extreme hunger.
While her children were starving and digging through garbage just to find something edible, the mother had been hiding food and eating it for herself.  A good mother would have split the food with her four children, but this is an example of what hunger and greed could do to a person. I don't personally think this is right, but I have never been in a situation like this.
Also, as Jeannette enters middle school, she gets bullied. Children call her names like "spider-legs, skeleton girl, and bony butt" because she is so skinny.  Even when she would be on the playground in fifth grade, she got jumped by a gang of girls every day, and made fun of since she had no buttons on her thrift-store coat. This must have been very hard to endure, especially since she had no one to talk to about it; all of her siblings were going through the same thing and she feared that her parents might go to the school and saying something that would make it worse.

Entry 2

The father of this story believes that humans and animals should live in harmony and not fear one another. One night while listening to the news report on the radio, he hears that one woman called the police about a mountain lion in her back yard. The police shot it. The father became so enraged about the news, ranting on about the mountain lion was innocent and had as much a right to be there as the woman did; to prove his point he took his family to the zoo, found the cheetah cage and climbed over the fence. He stared at it, put his hand up to the cage, and then started petting the cheetah. The cheetah did not bite and soon his children were also at the fence  petting the cheetah.

I find this to be quite interesting yet terrifying; I would love to say that I've pet a cheetah- not many people can.

Entry 1

The Glass Castle gives a very interesting view on poverty. It is written from a child's point of view, in which her parents try to make everything an adventure. For example, when they couldn't make the payment on their house, they'd  pack up the car and find another place to live, telling the children the FBI was after them and they had to leave town.
Also, the mother tells the children things such as that they will not buy fly paper because it kills the flies, which are eaten by the birds and lizards, and the birds and lizards eaten by the cats; if they don't kill the flies they don't have to buy cat food, which they couldn't afford anyway.