Psychology Book Report

For my book report I read The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle. This book is about a twelve year old girl named Alice who is growing up on a horse ranch in desert Colorado. At the time we really being the story it’s about mid-May and an extreme heat wave has just begun to occur. We get to follow this girl through what could be the longest summer of her life.

Within the first paragraph of the novel we immediately open have opened with tragedy and heartache for our young protagonist. Alice’s older sister, Nona, has run away and married a bronco rider within days of meeting him. This leaves Alice feeling lost and virtually without any real guidance. Nona often sends letters to Alice filling in the little details of her new exciting life on the rodeo circuit, but as the reader we get to see that Alice feels that there’s more to the story than she’s being told. The second issue that we are presented with is the death of one of Alice’s classmates. Alice’s only friend from school drowns in the canal while walking home from school. As the story goes on multiple rumors circulate that she may have been murdered, although we never find out what really happened. This leaves Alice pondering death and the meaning of friendship.

To fill the void left inside her, she turns to her English teacher, Mr. Delmar. Her nights are filled with long, somewhat suggestive conversations with this man. Alice believes that she may be in love with him and vice a versa but the reality of the situation is that Mr. Delmar is really a delusional drunk. Another area that Alice begins to find comfort is within a new found friend. When the two girls first meet, Alice absolutely hates her and is very rude towards her, but as time goes on the two bond over the mutual love o...

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...ook is related to psychology because we get to see this young girl go through these changes into a young adult. She is growing up in a world that wouldn’t know the difference if she were gone the next day and she addresses this to us multiple times. We get to see a young person go through depression and all these feelings that she’s too young to realize the meaning of. Love being the biggest, she thinks she loves Mr. Delmar, when really she just loves the idea of him. She knows she loves her father, but she’s frustrated at the lack of attention that she’s receiving. She loves her mother, but feels like she’s slipping away and is privately disgusted by her mother’s behaviors. The author did an excellent job at capturing the loneliness and confusion of a young girl at this period of time. This book is absolutely fantastic, although it is not for the faint of heart.