Finding Balance

May 1, 2020

Gr 8 Up-After spending a week together at Camp Chemo each summer for many years, Mari Manos and Jase Ellison are great friends whose serious flirtation indicates both might be interested in something more. During the school year, however, their paths don't really cross, as they go to different schools and live in different neighborhoods. Jase, who had leukemia when he was three, is actively trying to put his cancer experience behind him; no one at his private school knows he ever had it. However, Mari's experience with cancer is ever-present and very public: she navigates the world with one leg, following an amputation that saved her life. She can never just blend in. When Mari receives a scholarship and transfers into Jase's school, their worlds clash and Jase is forced to deal with the fact that he, too, is defined by being a cancer survivor. In addition to providing readers with a page-turning romance, Gardner deftly introduces many other topics, e.g., issues of class, access to healthcare, and the importance of Medicaid as a social net for people with complicated medical histories. VERDICT Cancer creates a lifetime of fallout. Gardner writes compellingly not only about the romance between these two teens, but also about the nuances in their navigation of survival. Recommended for YA collections.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2020
Two high schoolers are simultaneously united and divided by their cancer diagnoses, threatening their tentative romance. Jase Ellison's friends at Atlanta West Prep don't know he had leukemia at age 3; he's safe from the intrusive questions and taunts he endured in middle school. However, last summer at Camp Chemo, his past didn't prevent a "flirtationship" with Mari Manos. Mari, who "rocked the one-legged look" on pink forearm crutches thanks to osteogenic sarcoma at 10, can't hide her history. But when Mari transfers to his school and students gawk and gossip, Jase fears that his secret's in danger and pushes her away. In alternating third-person chapters, the teens navigate medical and academic problems while wrestling with their fear, anger, and attraction. Gardner, an amputee and cancer survivor, realistically tackles such tough issues as the massive costs of health care, the fear of relapse, and pressure to appear nondisabled. However, expository narration, some stilted dialogue, and one-dimensional secondary characters occasionally diminish the emotional impact. The teens' classmates' absolute ignorance of cancer particularly strains credulity. Pop-culture references--from Hamilton to "Baby Shark"--feel somewhat forced, as does the use of such disability rights terms as "super crip" and "inspiration porn." However, Mari's supportive family is heartening. Most characters are affluent and white; olive-skinned Mari and her family are working-class and cued as Greek American. An awkwardly written but unusually in-depth portrayal of cancer and disability. (Romance. 13-16)

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Starred review from February 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Like Jase Ellison, Mari Manos is a cancer survivor. Unlike Jase, however, Mari lost one leg to the disease. Both teens are close during summers at Camp Chemo, but when Mari transfers to Jase's exclusive Atlanta West Prep, he freaks. No one there knows his medical history, so instead of welcoming Mari, he rudely pretends not to know her. Mari's life at AWP grows more miserable as Jase's girlfriend spews hurtful comments about Mari's economic status and disability. As a result, Jase struggles between maintaining his reputation and supporting Mari. Nevertheless, a connection between the two remains due to their shared reality of being misrepresented and misunderstood. Separate events unfold that force Jase to rethink his survivorship and independent Mari to ask for help, and when Jase's mother announces that her annual fundraiser gala will benefit Camp Chemo, both teens must take control of their truths. A cancer survivor herself, Gardner skillfully presents day-to-day survivor challenges within a society that makes assumptions rather than educating itself about less prominent aspects of disability?for example, why a young woman might choose crutches over a prosthetic that would make her look normal. Plenty of heartbreak and joy shape this compelling story, as do reminders to find balance in our own lives. Readers who enjoyed Gardner's debut, Brave Enough (2018), will demand this novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)