When I was in Middle School I loved to read Lurlene McDaniel Books. You know the ones, someone either gets sick and dies or something tragic happens to one of the characters. Why did I like these books? To this day, I do not have a clue. Who wants to read a book about someone dying or how people close to them are dying. Maybe it was because at the time, no one that I knew had ever died or was ever very sick. Maybe..
So as you can tell, the theme of our first book is Cancer or actually it is what it is like to live beyond cancer. As I was researching this book I learned that the author, Jordon Sonnenblick, actually wrote this book in response to a nurse who wrote into him after the book Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pies and told him that the story wasn't complete. That there was more to fighting cancer than just getting to remission, that there are side effects that no one talks about from the medication. This book, After Ever After, which is the sequel to to Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pies skips to years later when the lead protagonist from the first book has gone off to college (and now Africa) and we get to see inside the head of his little brother, Jeffrey, who is now in eight grade and dealing with the side effects of his treatment from cancer. We also get to meet Jeffrey's best friend, Tad, who is also a cancer survivor. The relationship, born out of a common enemy, helps these two get through the challenges of daily life.
This book has got me thinking about what really happens after a person goes into remission and beyond in their battle against cancer. Like I said earlier, no one ever talks about it. It seems that after someone battles cancer and "wins," everything is happy ever after. What I like is that this book shows that it is not. There is more to it. So I decided to go over to www.cancer.org to look at some of the different effects of treatment and here is a short list of side effects:
- emotional relationships
- Chemo Brain (difficulty with staying focused, remembering details, taking longer to complete tasks, and more)
- Chemotherapy-induced (chemo-induced) peripheral neuropathy (set of symptoms that are caused by damage to the nerves furthest away from the spinal cord and brain)
- Lead to other cancers later in life
The book also talks about a couple of other things I want you to think about and try to answer.
The first is Jeff and Tad have very specific diets that their mothers have put them on. What are some of the items that they eat and can you find any other foods that their mothers might be tempted to feed them?
Another is the term beau geste. Beau geste, as defined by thefreedictionary.com is a grand gesture. Much of the story surrounds the idea that Tad wants to perform some grand gesture for someone as he feels that he has never done that for anyone. What will it be? I can't tell you, as that is a part of the story that makes up part of the climax. So in other words, you will have to read it for yourself. :)
But this makes me wonder, have you ever performed some grand gesture for someone else? What did you do and how did they react? Maybe you didn't think it was something that was going to be big, but it turned out to surprise even you.
I'd really like to hear what you thought of this book and maybe your ideas for a grand gesture that we could do as a class.
Work Cited:
"Beau Geste." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 03 June 2012. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/beau geste>.
"Treatments and Side Effects." Treatments and Side Effects. Web. 03 June 2012. <http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/index>.
Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. London: Scholastic, 2006. Print.
Sonnenblick, Jordan. After Ever After. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.
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