''Joey was three years younger than I, and a boy, and therefore vastly inferior.'' This sentence tells readers .

how Miss Lottie acts toward children
what Lizabeth thinks of her brother
how the family treats its children
what the community thinks of young males

onto a large boat, and mark the water level that the boat sinks to. then, take the elephant out and put a bunch of marked weights onto the boat until it reaches the same water level. add up the masses of the weights to get the weight of the elephant.

marriage difficulties adversely affect parent-child communication