DRUMS,GIRLS, AND DANGEROUS PIE
BY: JORDAN SONNENBLICK (SLIDE CREATED BY: ARTIS ALEXANDER)
Summary
Steven Alper is an average eighth grader that loves to play the drums.
He also thinks that having a little brother is the worst thing in the world.Steven is constantly annoyed by his little brother Jeffrey, who is cuter than anything. Steven thinks that is pretty annoying, too. Steven one day wakes up early to practice the drums. After a few minutes, Jeffrey comes downstairs to be with Steven. Jeffrey is hungry,so he asks Steven to make him some oatmeal. While Jeffrey"helps" by stirring the oatmeal,he falls and hits his head, and he gets a bloody nose that never seems to stop.His mom takes him to the local hospital while Steven is at school worrying about Jeffrey. When he comes back from school, he finds out that Jeffrey has leukemia, a blood cancer. Jeffrey and his mom leave for Philadelphia, and Steven and his dad are speechless, and they don't talk. As Jeffrey's condition gets worse, Steven's grades drop, and the only thing he has left is the drums.
He also thinks that having a little brother is the worst thing in the world.Steven is constantly annoyed by his little brother Jeffrey, who is cuter than anything. Steven thinks that is pretty annoying, too. Steven one day wakes up early to practice the drums. After a few minutes, Jeffrey comes downstairs to be with Steven. Jeffrey is hungry,so he asks Steven to make him some oatmeal. While Jeffrey"helps" by stirring the oatmeal,he falls and hits his head, and he gets a bloody nose that never seems to stop.His mom takes him to the local hospital while Steven is at school worrying about Jeffrey. When he comes back from school, he finds out that Jeffrey has leukemia, a blood cancer. Jeffrey and his mom leave for Philadelphia, and Steven and his dad are speechless, and they don't talk. As Jeffrey's condition gets worse, Steven's grades drop, and the only thing he has left is the drums.
about the characters
The characters are; Steven(the dork/crazy drummer),Jeffrey(the victim),the over protective mom, the quite dad, Renee Albert(Steven's friend), and Annette Watson(Stevens crush). The protagonist is Steven because, he is the main person(other than Jeffrey) that is mostly affected and the book is about how he is dealing with it. Steven was a normal teenage boy until his life was turned around. It all started with a nose bleed, and a trip to the hospital for to learn that jeffrey has cancer. The antagonist is leukemia, which is a type of cancer that increases numbers of immature abnormal leukocytes. Leukemia was devastating for the Alpher family. When the mom told seven the bad news "He's relly sick", on page 36 was a blow out for steven.
The theme
The theme to this story is that no matter how hard life gets, you just keep going. Even though Jeffrey's condition took a toll on the Alpher family they just went on and at the end it turns out that Jeffrey is not 100% better, but he well be in the next couple of years. "And this was the absolute worst thing about last October 7th, the one moment I'll never forgive my self for, was that my brother was diagnosed leukemia". page 36
Connections
I can relate to this story by text-to-world because, I remember Robin Roberts and Amy Robach on GMA both was diagnosed with cancer and it was hard for them. Not only it was hard for them, but it was hard for people around my old neighborhood, for some weird reason. But, they keep fighting; just like the Alpher family, they both were determined to find another way. So, those are some of the connections that I can make form this story.
Last, but not least, The Opinion
The two positive aspects is that the whole family didn't give up, and that little Jeffy was positive about the whole thing. The two negative aspects is that Jeffrey was diagnosed with leukemia, and Steven's friend Samantha (that he met in the hospital when he went with Jeffrey to do his treatment) had died when Steven went the second time Jeffrey had to go to the hospital. The type of genre I would classify this book would be a realistic-fiction and I would recommend this book to any person that wants or needs any inspiration because it is a very powerful book and I was inspired to try 100% and to not give up.