I had the opportunity to hear Jordan Sonnenblick speak to a group of middle school students last week when I was substitute teaching. I had already read After Ever After, the sequel to the book Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie, but had not read anything else he had written. I was impressed by what Jordan shared with the kids. He used to be an 8th grade English teacher and he knows how to talk to middle school kids. He told the story behind the book Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, which was very interesting and I decided to read this book.
This book is about an 8th grade boy whose 4 year old brother gets Leukemia and how that affects him and his family. Jordan wrote this book because when he was teaching 8th grade, he had a student whose younger brother had cancer and he looked for a book for her about a middle school student with a sibling who had cancer and he could not find any. The book tells how when Jordan's brother was diagnosed with cancer, it threw his family into crisis mode, he stopped doing schoolwork, played the drums more, and how his parents and family life were affected. He did a good job of telling the story and I think that this book can help middle school kids to understand how cancer can affect a family. It is also just a really good story.
I enjoyed this book and it's sequel and look forward to reading his other books.
Mr. Sonnenblick's newest book, Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip , is coming out on March 1 of this year and he says that if people pre-order it, he can be on the New York Times Best Seller List and his mother will be proud of him. :)
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