A Castle on Viola Street by Dyanne DiSalvo talks about a boy named Andy and his family. They lived in a tiny apartment, it was chilly during the winter. They had a dream to have a big house with heat during the winter. They signed up for a project to build houses with multiple families and eventually they will get the house they build. Andy and his family worked hard for several months and at last they got their dream house.
“Our family is rich in more ways than we can count.” Andy’s family cares about each other and thinks about each other, so they love each other and live happily together. In the beginning of the story, the father tucked up the children’s blankets, because the house was chilly inside but the father wanted to keep them warm. When they built the house, the father lifted the old tiles and Andy hammered in the new ones, they worked together as a team. It showed that the father cared about his children in small ways. Andy and his father worked together and showed that everybody in the family wanted to contribute using whatever they can do. In this story, it told us a family where family members helped other people in the family and were committed to the family. It was a family full of love and they were rich in many ways.
“Anyone who wants to can help. It is called volunteering.” A volunteer is somebody who offers to help or work without being paid. In this story, everybody in Andy’s family helped to build Mrs. Tran’s house. Andy and his father helped with the construction, mother helped with demolition, and his two young sisters made lemonade for the people. They all tried their best and worked happily. Eventually Mrs. Tran got the house and Andy’s family felt a lot of achievements. Volunteering is someone who voluntarily offers help to other people without asking to be paid back. Volunteers will get a lot of contentment while seeing the people getting helped are happy.
“Sometimes things are hard to get used to and people are slow to change.” It is possible that new things will break people’s old habits, so they don’t like it happening to them. Therefore, they don’t orient themselves to new things. In this story, the lady next door said, “no banging before 9 o’clock.” It shows that the lady didn’t like the construction project. The noise early in the morning bothered her. For the new things people are not familiar with, they are unsure whether it is a good change or not. And also it takes some time to get used to the new things. That’s why people are slow to adopt new things.
“Being little is not an excuse to not pitch in.” Being little doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. If you cannot lift heavy tiles, at least you can help to pass some lemonade. In this story, Andy’ sisters are too young to help with the construction, so the mother made them squeeze lemonade and pass to the works. People can always find something they can help as long as they have the motivation to help. You might be tiny, but you are mighty.
“Big dreams are built little by little, and we are making a start.” Big dreams are like big houses. A mansion has to be built little by little. You can’t all of a sudden get a big dream come true. The family’s big dream was having a new house with heat during the winter. The new house has to be built a little by little. The family didn’t get the house all of a sudden. They have to work hard on the building of the house for several months. We have to be patient and work hard for a big dream to come true.
In this story, I learned that we should care and love each other. Love is priceless. People are slow to adopt new things and new environments. You may be tiny but might, so always try your best no matter how small you are. Last but not the least, you have to be patient and keep working hard for your big dream to come true.
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