Friday Memes: Wink by Rob Harrell

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Image: Penguin Random House

Wink by Rob Harrell. 316 p. Dial Books for Young Readers/ Penguin Random House, March 30, 2020. 97819884815149.

Publisher synopsis: A hilarious and heartwrenching story about surviving middle school–and an unthinkable diagnosis–while embracing life’s weirdness.

Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn’t want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don’t know what to say to “the cancer kid.” But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table.

Based on Rob Harrell’s real life experience, and packed with comic panels and spot art, this incredibly personal and poignant novel is an unforgettable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting story of survival and finding the music, magic, and laughter in life’s weirdness.

First Line: I'm lying on a steel table, all too aware of the giant ray gun pointed in my direction.

Page 56: There are som fields behind Abby's subdivision that lead down to a small creek, where we've spent hours splashing around and catching crawdads. It's kind four spot. Or one of them, anyway.
     We climbed over the rail fence and set off into the waist-high weeds and grass at the back of their property. I walked quietly for a minute before I started in.
     "The news isn't, um...good."
     Abby watched me while I grabbed a big stick out of the path and threw it to the side. "So, it's cancer?"