I would rate White Oleander, by Janet Fitch, a three and a half stars because the book was slow, but had its peaks. I felt Fitch did a good job creating the main character, Astrid, but she would of been better if she did more rebellious things in each foster home she went to, also if the book had more "oh my gosh" moments for example if she ran away, or her mom never got out of jail. The book was a good book and had very different characters through each foster home that she encountered making it very diverse. Astrid didn't know her father and had to witness her mother, Ingrid, get hauled to jail after she, murdered her ex-boyfriend at five years of age. Not having her true parents as a role models in her life made it challenging to discover herself. After going through five fosters home plus a children center she was able to test out different life styles to try and discover who she wants to be. She went through high class and low class, being starved, and finally experiencing the feeling of love than everything being taken away. I would of gave the book five stars if the book had more a little more engaging, White Oleander is 446 pages and took me about 3 weeks to accomplish, but I believe if the book was cut to around 200 pages and all her conflicts were back to back and not so much "blah" moments.