For my self-selected self-directed book report, I chose to read the book Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. The story is about four children and their parents living a happy normal life until one day they get unfortunate news. The police officer at their door informs them that their father has passed away in a fiery car accident. Their mom is terrified because her kids no longer have a dad and she has no skills with which she could make money with. The oldest child, named Chris, is thirteen years old and his slightly younger sister, named Cathy, is only eleven years old at the time.

They are not the only children in the story as they have a younger brother and sister that are twins. One named Corey the other named Carey who are both 3 years old. The mother decides to take them to live with their grandparents. Only the grandmother knows they exist. The grandfather thought that his daughter was evil so he didn’t need to know the kids were born. The mother thinks that when he dies she will inherit all of his massive fortune. These children are forced to live on a different floor then the maids and the regular inhabitants. They stay in this room because the grandmother locks the door. Later after getting really bored in that one room they find a secret passage in the closet that leads to the attic. Most of their time they spend up in the attic teaching the twins all they know and reading to learn more. After a while they get quite bored and ask their Mom to bring them some coloring books and paints so that they have something to pass the time.

The grandmother isn’t the average granny who makes you cookies and lets you stay over every now and then. She is an evil thing that abuses the children and starves them nearly to death. Their room is connected to a bathroom which is where they do their business and keep clean. The mom starts a new life without her kids who are forced to live in these two rooms and spend their time making paper animals and flowers. I won’t tell you the end because I really liked this book and I would recommend this book to both girls and boys of most ages. I would rate it 4 ½ out of 5 because it is kind of confusing but at the end it all makes sense. I could connect to this book because they don’t always get along with each other. I fight with my sister every now and then just because we too much time with each other.