This is one of the saddest childhoods I have ever read. Adeline's mother died soon after she was born. She was the youngest of one sister and three brothers. They lived in China and she was blamed for her mother's death and considered bad luck. The real bad luck was that the father remarried in a year to a 17 year old half French woman who was quite beautiful and also quite cruel and manipulative. She had no use for the five step children and only used them to set them against each other. She had two children of her own who were treated quite differently from their step-siblings.
They were not allowed friends, money, modern clothes, or even a breakfast other than rice cereal. The duck chapter was really tragic. I couldn't quit reading this tragedy.
Fortunately, it ends when she escapes to boarding school in England to hopefully make a better life for herself.
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