Helpful Score: 4
A sad but realistic story of a typical american family dealing with the AIDS disease within their family. Very well written. It had an unsatisfying ending for me though...I didn't feel closure.
Helpful Score: 2
I don't like Alice Hoffman in general but would say this is her best book that I know of. It's a touching and sad story, even if its telling is slightly sentimental.
Helpful Score: 1
Hoffman writes so simply about human passions that her characters are branded into your memory
Helpful Score: 1
This book was sad but kept my interest............
Helpful Score: 1
the moving story of a small town American family discovering their child has AIDS and how it affects the family, friends and community.
Helpful Score: 1
A sad yet triumphant book about a hemophiliac boy who contracts AIDS and the challenges he and his family face. A tear-jerker and eye-opening book.
Wow,a really great story of a family living with AIDS
I thought the book was very strange as it was difficult to understand what was going on.
A simply beautiful, amazing and, of course, heart-breaking novel. I started reading it last night, and couldn't stop. Words can't adequately describe how strongly I was affected. Hoffman has written a deeply-moving novel I can most highly recommend.
Library Journal Review
Probably destined to become the first best-selling novel about AIDS, Hoffman's newest work is heart-wrenching. Star gymnast on her school team, 11-year-old Amanda yearns toward adolescence. When her illness is diagnosed (she'd had a blood transfusion for an appendectomy), her family photographer mother Polly, astronomer father Ivan, and 8-year-old brother Charlie experience the expected disbelief, anger, and sorrow. However, because Amanda has AIDS they also experience rejection by old friends and trouble at school. As Amanda's life dwindles away, the family struggles, begins to dissolve, but finally reconnects. First-rate "contemporary issue" fiction that will leave few dry eyes.
Library Journal Review
Probably destined to become the first best-selling novel about AIDS, Hoffman's newest work is heart-wrenching. Star gymnast on her school team, 11-year-old Amanda yearns toward adolescence. When her illness is diagnosed (she'd had a blood transfusion for an appendectomy), her family photographer mother Polly, astronomer father Ivan, and 8-year-old brother Charlie experience the expected disbelief, anger, and sorrow. However, because Amanda has AIDS they also experience rejection by old friends and trouble at school. As Amanda's life dwindles away, the family struggles, begins to dissolve, but finally reconnects. First-rate "contemporary issue" fiction that will leave few dry eyes.
The story of an ordinary American family, Polly, a wife, mother and struggling photographer; her husband, Ivan, an astronomer; their son, Charlie, an eight-year old obsessed with dinosaurs...and Amanda, a wonderful eleven-year old who dreams of becoming a great gymnast. She is gifted with unusual strength and courage, especially when a sudden, shocking tragedy consumes her entire world-her life, her family, and the community in which they live.
This is a beautifully written and sensitve account of a young girl and her struggle with Aids. It is a moving story of both her coming of age and coming to terms with the life she is losing but has not yet lived. Everyone should read this .
I recently read two books by Alice Hoffman. Both were very good. I really like the way she writes in the present tense, as if everything is just now happening. In this book a young daughter becomes very sick with AIDS, before much was known about the disease. This is a story of how a family dealt with loss and grief.
This is the story of a typical American family who must come together to face the sudden and shocking tragedy of life-threatening illness. It is funny, sad and heart-warming. A must for all Alice Hoffman fans.
Insightful story of a family's struggle to keep sanity in spite of tragedy.
Probably destined to become the first best-selling novel about AIDS, Hoffman's newest work is heart-wrenching. Star gymnast on her school team, 11-year-old Amanda yearns toward adolescence. When her illness is diagnosed (she'd had a blood transfusion for an appendectomy), her familyphotographer mother Polly, astronomer father Ivan, and 8-year-old brother Charlieexperience the expected disbelief, anger, and sorrow. However, because Amanda has AIDS they also experience rejection by old friends and trouble at school. As Amanda's life dwindles away, the family struggles, begins to dissolve, but finally reconnects. First-rate "contemporary issue" fiction that will leave few dry eyes.
