Losing Christina Book Report

I read Losing Christina. It is about a girl named Christina who lives on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean about an hour away from Maine (the Mainland). Once children enter seventh grade they move to the Mainland for the rest of their school years. Christina has very mixed feelings about this; she could be described as a very judging person because when she first met the principal Mr. Shevvington and language arts teacher Mrs. Shevvington the people she would be boarding with for the entire school year. When she first met them she described them as lifeless, boring, and the second she met them she decided that she would not like them. Christina could be described as a very determined person because she always was telling the four kids from the Mainland, that were boarding with her, stories about what she thought Mr. and Mrs. Shevvington were doing. She thought they were evil and tried every way possible to make the other children believe her. Another way you could describe Christina would be very caring, yet not caring at the same time.   She is very caring of her island and of the kids that were from the island because she always stood up for them even if she knew she probably wouldn’t win. She was also uncaring because the second she met Mr. and Mrs. Shevvington she made sure she wasn’t going to be nice to them or agree to basically anything they said. If the Shevvington’s felt one way she felt the opposite, they were never on the same side and were always fighting. I could also describe Christina as rude or impolite because every meal that she ate there was always something wrong with it and was always asking if she could make a sandwich instead. Another reason she could be described as impolite would be because on the first day of school she got sent to the office for punching a boy in the face because he was teasing her. The last way I would describe Christina would be as very brave because when she suspected the Shevvington’s of something she would always try to fight back no matter what the cost was. When the Shevvington’s started to focus on destroying her she fought back with everything she had and most of the time she didn’t win, she thought if she could just win once then everyone would believe her, but the only thing that could have the evidence was Mr. Shevvington’s briefcase and he guarded it with his life.

 I think that the theme of this book is to fight for what you believe in and continue to do it until you win, no matter what happens along the way. I think that Christina already knew what she was about to face. Going to the Mainland was hard enough for island kids because they were not treated as fairly as the kids that lived on the Mainland. When she met Mrs. Shevvington I think she knew that she was going to have to stand up and out on top of her if she hadn’t she probably would have been just as useless as everyone else that bowed down to the Shevvington’s giving them even more power then they already had. In the third part of the book the Shevvington’s start to make her life revolve around fire, they stuff her clothes with matches and put cigarettes in her purse while she is sleeping. One night after she had come home from her only friend’s house she found that all her clothes had been set to fire except the ones she had been wearing. This made her already poor family have to buy her a whole new wardrobe leaving them with even less than before. I think Christina learns very early in the school year that she would have to fight back or she would be trampled down to the ground. The first week of school Christina learned that there was something odd going on and it seemed as if she was the only one who noticed it. Everyone around her thought that the Shevvington’s were so nice to take in the island kids who couldn’t respect a thing they were doing for them. The people around thought that if the children would just listen to the ones superior to them that the year would be easier and more exciting for them, eventually they learned that only the island kids seen through the Shevvington’s and that if Christina hadn’t fought back they would continue to destroy the lives of other children. They had already destroyed the lives of seven other kids, the kids who would live in a mental institution for the rest of there lives because the Shevvington’s had played with there minds and the minds of the parents who thought the Shevvington’s did everything they could to make sure that the children were not hurt. The Shevvington’s always had suggested the places that the parents could send there children that may have helped them.