After Ever After

Sonnenblick, Jordan. After Ever After. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

Jeffrey is a fairly typical 8th grade boy.  He struggles with math class.  He worries about the end of the year high-stakes testing that may hold him back in 8th grade.  He is trying to decide whether he really likes Lindsey, the new girl in his class.  He wonders why his brother decided to move to Africa to study drumming for a year.  Oh, and he's a cancer survivor.

Jeffrey and his friend Tad are both cancer survivors, and they are both dealing with the long-term effects of both the cancer and the medications they had to take to survive.  They are planning to walk across the graduation stage together: a milestone for both of them as Tad can't walk more than nine steps and Jeff isn't sure he'll be graduating. 

This story was sweet.  It was funny.  It was entertaining.  It was sad, predictably so, but I read it anyway, and I really enjoyed it.  This would be a great read-aloud story for a junior high class (as long as the teacher can edit some of the characters' word choices).  It was definitely worth the trip to the library.