In Tish Bonner’s English class, there’s a year-long assignment to write weekly journal entries. Any entries that she doesn’t want the teacher (Mrs. Dunphrey) to read should be labeled “Do not read”. Throughout the year, Tish relies more and more on the journal (and crocheting) as an outlet for all her anxieties.
“You can control the yarn, even if you can’t control anything else” (37).
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Tish’s dad walked out, and when Tish’s mom begs him to come back and stay, he repeats his pattern of domestic abuse to her and Tish.
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When Tish’s dad seems to have left for good, Tish’s mom also leaves to find him.
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Tish’s only close “friends” aren’t a good influence. They either regularly shoplift for clothes, cheat on their boyfriends, or try to set Tish up with jerks she’s not interested in.
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Tish works at a minimum-wage job at Burger Boy. That’s already stressful enough, but when she gets asked out by the assistant manager, who she immediately rejects, work gets even harder (since her hours get cut, she has to clean up extra messes, and she eventually gets let go).
Tish reaches her breaking point when she runs out of money to pay the electric bills, property tax, phone bill, and grocery bills to provide for her and her younger brother. She tried shoplifting food once, but she felt so guilty about it afterwards. She thought about reporting to the authorities that her parents left without leaving money and without saying when they’ll come back, but she became afraid that they’ll split up her and her brother.
Not knowing what else to do, Tish tells Mrs. Dunphrey that she can finally read the entire journal, even the entries that were labeled “Do not read” (which Mrs. Dunphrey previously did not read to respect privacy). Because Tish has been handing in the journal weekly, Mrs. Dunphrey isn’t inclined to believe that Tish is simply making up excuses to not turn in her research paper. Mrs. Dunphrey realizes how hard it can be to care about things like commas when there are much more important things going on in life. As required by law, Mrs. Dunphrey reports Tish’s situation to social services, but she goes out of her way to help Tish. When social services can’t find a foster home that can provide for both Tish and her brother, Mrs. Dunphrey offers up her house for Tish and her brother to stay at for three nights until other accommodations could be made. Eventually, Tish and her brother get sent to live with her loving grandparents (on their dad’s side of the family) that they never met before, and Mrs. Dunphrey gifts Tish with yarn and another journal.