This book is about a girl name Melinda who loves Ballet, and her best friend Jesse-since first grade-. She truly had the perfect live until Jesse parents had a divorce and he had to move to California with his mom. She did not loose him because they kept contact through email. So everything was still fine. During summer she became friend with a new girl in town Bailey and she was moving up in her Ballet world. She got accepted to A Program in Washington and that was great. Her parents decided to let her go and she enjoyed it until one day she fainted. At that point her whole life Stop. She was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Surprise, she became sick and was unable to dance Ballet. Her parents was at lost because they could not understand why her, she also was wondering why her. Through tough days she and her parents decided to try a new drug on her. The drug worked she achieve remission. She got out of the hospital and went home but she has to keep up with her chemo. Jesse came to visit her and things got interesting between the two. She started dancing again and the she got accepted to a Dance theater.
Things did not continue so great, the leukemia reappear and she was sent back to the hospital, chance of another remission is poor, they could not reuse the same drug they use the first time on her cause it would be too toxic. The best suggestion was a transplant which can also kill her. They are going to have to kill her immune system. She became sick after the surgery and since her immune system was down, she had a seizure and she died.
This book was hard for me to read, the hardest part was after she got Leukemia, it was devastating. I got to see all side of the story from the dad to the mom and also Jesse, her friend Bailey and got to see how hard it was on Melinda on her own. With not being able to do what she loves and being loss, feeling like her life just stop. I got to see a slim view of how hard it is for the people that have cancer. I think the authors' purpose for writing the book is to provide a clear view of how the family struggle and how it is unexpected it was for Melinda to have cancer and how everyone was affected by it. The author used chronological pattern in telling her story, the entire book was in a letter and e-mail format which is why I was able to connect with each character more, and know how they are feeling.