Melinda works through her trauma as the year progresses, and alongside this process, she also develops her skills as an artist and her ability to express her emotions and experiences through art. At the beginning of the school year, Melinda describes art class as a dream that follows a nightmare; it is her refuge and the only place she feels like she can enjoy herself at school. Melinda also admires her teacher, Mr. Freeman, for his expressiveness, creativity, and passion for art and education. Mr. Freeman designs a year-long art project in which the students must pick a random object and “spend the rest of the year learning how to turn that object into a piece of art […] [and] figure out how to make [their] object say something, express an emotion, speak to every person who looks at it” (12). Melissa’s object turns out to be a tree, and she initially declares it too easy. Mr. Freeman warns that she cannot choose another object; she must instead adapt and find out how to express herself through the form of a tree. As Melinda begins her journey into artistic expression, she learns