"Chinese Cinderella" chapter 11

In chapter eleven the story is set in Shanghai, Japan in the year of 1948. At the beginning of chapter eleven Adeline and her brothers, sister, stepsister and stepbrother are all given a present from one of Niang's friends. They all received a chicken. Adeline's siblings chose before her and she was the last one to pick. She ended up with the scrawniest and smallest looking bird of them all. Over time Adeline had a great bond with her bird who was called PLT (short for 'Precious Little Treasure'). They become the best of friends and they are always together. Adeline favours her chick over the others and goes and fetches her worms every now and then from the garden. Jackie is their dog that lives in the back garden. The dog is fierce and wolf like, one afternoon when Adeline is digging for worms Jackie goes and bites her. She runs inside and washes the blood coming from the bite marks on her arm. Her Aunt Baba gets home from work and when she see's Adeline she is shocked. She dresses the wound and cheers her up. I felt a bit upset for Adeline because if she didn't have an Aunt then no one would be looking out for her and taking care of her. It makes me feel quite angry at her Father and Stepmother. I wish i could ask her parents why they weren't more responsible and caring. Later on in the chapter Adeline's father tells one of his sons to go and fetch a chicken to show off to one of their guests how much Jackie's behaviour had improved. The son picks Adeline's chicken PLT knowing that she is the one to give him the least amount of trouble if the chicken is killed or hurt by the dog. They all eagerly watch, some with excitement and joy and some with fear. PLT is placed on the lawn while Adeline's father is holding onto Jackie's leash, he lets go and Jackie runs straight towards PLT with his sharp ferocious looking teeth. At once he pounces on the chicken and kills it almost at once, but Adeline runs over in fear of her beloved pets life quickly picks up her chicken and cradles her as she runs inside to wrap her up. She stayed awake most of the night, hoping and praying that PLT would be all right in the morning. When she was woken up she looked at her pet, and saw her cold lifeless body laying beside her, Adeline was most upset and angry about the loss of her pet. She couldn't believe PLT was the chicken chosen to test Jackie and she was upset about the outcome. I felt very deeply for Adeline in this chapter it made me feel very sad for her loss. I kept hoping that PLT would be alright when morning came but instead she died. Adeline buries her pet in the garden which i think shows readers how much she truly cares for her bird to lay her to rest in peace in the back garden. This chapter was interesting for me to read about and i enjoyed reading this book, until it got to the end.