COLOR OF WATER In the first chapter I thought that she had so many children. I couldn't believe that someone could have that many. That showed me that if you want to make it in the world, you can do it. No matter what comes in the way or how many children you have. I put my self as a daughter while reading this chapter and through the hole book. I noticed that I wouldn't not want so many brothers and sisters in the house. I think it is because I have grown up with only one sister. I think it would make me jealous of all my brothers and sisters because I couldn't have all the attention. It must be hard on both parts, as a mother and children. As a mother, trying to pay attention to all of her children, playing the role of a Father and supporting her family at the same time. To me that is a strong women.As a child, it's hard to relize that. You feel as if your mother doesn't love you.That your mother has time for everyone but you. I was very surprized that the writer was ashamed that his mother was white. I couldn't believe that he was ashamed of that. To me, that is your mother. No matter what color she is, if she is purple or green she is your mother. That you should love her no matter what color. I think he does love her as a mother but has a problem that she is white. I was just thinking that he might have a problem with that because some children compair them selves with their parents. If they don't look like one of them, they question who they are as a person. I did that. For a very long time in my life I didn't relize that my mother was dark. I don't think I really paied attention to it untill I got into J.H.S. To me that was my mother. I didn't look at her and say that was my black mother. I love her and that was mommy. Paula said to me that she thinks it was because he was a young boy and didn't know any better. I do understand that. I just feel at one point he seemed mean. Something that I still can't understand, why he said that. I think his mother was such a strong woman. I don't know if I could go through what she went through and still be strong person. I couldn't believe how she could deal with people saying such hurtful words and continue to be a strong person. I think I would be a sad person, if I had to people yelling at me, cursing at me and slaping me in the face just because I was dating/married to a black man. That was something I don't think I could deal with. In my eyes she is a women. To raise so many children and put them through college. . . I have no words to describe how I feel. When I read that part, that she put so many children in school, that as they say "you can do anything if you put your mind to it". This was so true when it came to her family. Everytime I think about what she did in life, a smile comes on my face. I think to myself "God bless her". I hated the father Tateh. He was so mean. I felt so bad for his wife. That even when she was cripled, she still acted like a wife. Doing everything she could for Tateh to love her. But that wasn't enough for him. He soon went off with another woman in the book, which I was shocked. I thought he was such a religious man, that he wouldn't do that kinda thing. I also noticed in the book that Tateh was cheap. Even when he was making tons of money, he still didn't want to spend it on his own children. I loved this book. I spent my whole vacation reading it. In the begining I didn't like that it went from the son's story then the mothers. But when I continued reading I started to like how it left me hanging. So that I would read the next chapter so I could find out what happened to the mother or the son. I am already telling my friends to read the book. Thank you Ms. Mayo for giving the class this book to read. It was great!