What is the theme (author's message)? How does the author lead you to that theme? What characters help express that theme

b. brooks wrote about the same type of neighborhood in which she grew up.

well if u read the book you would know that she meant to

i believe it is "“i’ll beat thee, but i would infect my hands.”

explanation:

each morning i wrote my name

on the dusty cabinet, then crossed

the dining table in script, scrawled

in capitals on the backs of chairs,

practicing signatures like scales

while mother followed squirting

linseed from a burping can