Positively

POSITIVELY

By:  Courtney Sheinmel

FIRST SENTENCE

“When my mother died I imagined God was thinking, “One down, and one to go.”

SUMMARY

Emerson was special from the day she was born.  This is because she was born with HIV.  She was infected by her mother while her mother was pregnant with her.  The story begins when Emmy is 13, and her mother dies from HIV/AIDS.

Lost and confused, and forced to live with her father and pregnant step-mom, Emmy doesn’t know what to do.  She is angry most of the time, and her father decides to send her to Camp Positive, a Summer camp for girls with HIV.

At first, Emmy is angry that she is being sent to the camp.  Over time, and with the help of the girls in her cabin, Emmy learns to cope with her illness.  She also realizes that her mother is never going to come back, and she needs to start dealing with it to survive.

When Emmy returns from Camp Positive, she grows closer to her father and step-mom.  She also welcomes her new baby step-sister named Hannah.     

REVIEW

Not all teen girl stories are happy ones, but if you look close enough, there may be something “positive” in every story.  Emmy’s story is exactly that.  While it is very sad that Emmy is so sick, she eventually finds that there are things she can be positive about.  She realizes that she still has many positive things to live for – her friends, her family, and the future.

I did not realize how serious HIV can be on a daily basis for those infected with it.  Their lives are not easy.  When Emmy’s mother died, she had a hard time coping with her loss.  Although this made the story sad, I liked seeing that Emmy was able to look past her HIV to find happiness.

The first part of the book was hard to read because it was so sad, so I was pleased that the ending was happier.

RATING

3        Plot

4        Characters

4        Attention Grabbing

3        Girlie-Meter

4        Ending

18      TOTAL

4        STARS

Melina – Thinking Positively