moderator: white tigers.

1. On page 19, Maxine says, "...we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves." but on page 20, she also says, "She said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman." The second quote is talking about how her mother says Maxine will grow up to be a wife and a slave. I read this quote and couldn`t help thinking how sad it was her mother didn`t believe in her. Why does her mother believe that Maxine can only grow up to be a wife and slave? Why doesn`t she believe Maxine could be a swordswoman or a heroine or live up to her full potential?

2. When Maxine was pretending to be Fa Mu Lan, the bird led her both up and down the mountain before and after her training. Is the bird some sort of symbol for events that happen later on in the book? Is it like a guardian for her? Was it only the messenger for the old man and woman?

3. On page 36, during the Fa Mu Lan story, some people talk about how she looks beautiful in her men`s armor before she leaves to form an army, but later on in the book she says that the soldiers never knew she was a woman. Who knew she was a woman and who didn`t? Weren`t some of the soldiers in her army from her village and if so wouldn`t they know she was a woman after all the commotion about her being trained on the mountain?