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The Hope of Elephants by Amanda Rawson Hill. 476 p. Charlesbridge, September 6. 2022. 9781623342597. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)
It's the penultimate Monday of my students' summer break! I'm back with my colleagues for two days of PD on Thursday. Tick tock, tick tock. Counting down to the end of summer.
Middle Grade Monday features The Hope of Elephants by Amanda Rawson Hill. This first-person verse novel is narrated by Cass, whose father has been battling cancer all of her life. She was only one when he received his first cancer diagnosis. Then, each odd year of her life, he was diagnosed with a different kind of cancer and now, on the last day of her eleventh year, she finds out the cancer is back. But, Cass senses that her parents, who have been very open with her, are now keeping something from her.
They are. The reason why her dad has such bad luck with cancer is that he has a genetic mutation, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, where half the sufferers develop cancer before the age of forty. Cass has a 50/ 50 chance of having the mutation and of developing breast cancer before she's thirty. Now, not only is she dealing with her dad's recurrence, she has to decide whether to have her blood tested for the mutation. Does she want to know? What is the value in knowing? So she makes lists of pros and cons. While she deals with this, she's also dealing with wanting to continue playing baseball (doing so puts her dad at risk for infection), trying to find comfort in her faith, and her homeschooling assignments, which involves visiting an elephant at a nearby zoo, with whom Cass bonds.
My how I loved this book! Not only is the cover absolutely perfect and perfectly gorgeous, but I found the voice immediately compelling. Readers will get to know Cass through powerful free-verse poems that feature strong emotions and intense imagery. Don't miss reading the informative Author Note at the end.
They are. The reason why her dad has such bad luck with cancer is that he has a genetic mutation, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, where half the sufferers develop cancer before the age of forty. Cass has a 50/ 50 chance of having the mutation and of developing breast cancer before she's thirty. Now, not only is she dealing with her dad's recurrence, she has to decide whether to have her blood tested for the mutation. Does she want to know? What is the value in knowing? So she makes lists of pros and cons. While she deals with this, she's also dealing with wanting to continue playing baseball (doing so puts her dad at risk for infection), trying to find comfort in her faith, and her homeschooling assignments, which involves visiting an elephant at a nearby zoo, with whom Cass bonds.
My how I loved this book! Not only is the cover absolutely perfect and perfectly gorgeous, but I found the voice immediately compelling. Readers will get to know Cass through powerful free-verse poems that feature strong emotions and intense imagery. Don't miss reading the informative Author Note at the end.
Tell your readers who love verse novels and sad novels to make sure to add The Hope of Elephants to their tbr (to be read) list. The book releases on September 6. Happy book birthday! Happy reading!
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