The is called "the cement garden", and is about four childe-
ren. Their father was struck by a heartattack, and their
mother had cancer or something and died too. The kids didn't
want to go to an orphan's house so they keep it secret and
bury her in a trunk. At first the kids coudn't get along so
well with each other but at the end of the story they can.

Befor their parents died the kids didn't have any relatives or
friends except for their parents so after they died they only
had each other. Seeing that the kids couldn't get along so
well they had a problem because they needed someone to love.
July finds Derek, Sue starts to make/hold? a diary, Tom picks
a friend at school and Jack got his dick.
July's relation with Derek seems very close but after all she
chooses "her" family. Sue keeps on writing her diary and got a
lot of supoport from it. Tom and his friend are having dres-
sing party's all the time and Jack keeps on masturbating.
I don't understand the function of Tom's friend in the novel
but Derek's is more clear. As individuals they love Derek and
are seeing him as someone you can talk to.(What those kids
really needed!) As a family they see Derek as a spy and someo-
ne who can discover "mom" which becomes truth at the end of
the book.

The best part for me in the story was where Sue's reading her
diary to Jack. In the parts she read/red? there was a lot of
criticism of Jack. Jack feels uncomfortable but realises that
he should change his attitude.

Sue spoke quickly. "You never understood anything about her.
You were always horrible to her."
I felt troubled and I needed to make a lot of noise.

"He has not changed his clothes since you died. He does not
wash his hands or anything and he smells horrible. We hate it
when he touches a loaf of bread. You ca't say anything to him
in case he hits you. He's always about to hit someone.."

Here you see an arguement between Sue and Jack. It isn't
really an arguement but you see that Sue's making clear that
Jack acting is horrible. From that conversation Jack starts to
wash himself and try's to act nice.

I don't think I can give you a good opinion of my because when
I read the book I saw the movie all the time and in this case
I didn't like the movie at all. Maybe it was a good movie but
I didn't like the situation in the family. It's so weird, I
mean what family can live in an emptyness like they did, even
when you parents are alive. And it's terrible when your pa-
rents are both dead, you don't have any relatives or friends
and you just have each other.


To have each other isn't to bad but when one of them doesn't
wash himself, the other got a boyfriend and the third one is
acting like a baby it would drive ME crazy.
Well as you can see I didn't like the novel as a whole and I
feel terribly sorry for Sue who's got stuck with a bunch of
idiots without a caring mother.
That's my opinion I hope you can understand it.