If I could pick one word in the English language to describe the universe, it would be unfair. It is unfair how siblings have to deal with the other siblings that get sick from leukemia or Lyme disease, they have to make their schedule, their time, and their life revolves around this unfortunate situation. The worst part of Steven’s family and Katie’s family is that people try to sympathize and relate to them but they won’t understand the situation. They won’t understand the pain until it actually happens to them. Maybe if the “sympathetic” people had a family member seriously injured, they would better understand.

I have read Drum, Girls and Dangerous Pie and Kira-Kira and learned the quality they share. Through reading these two books, I have learned the difficulties the cancer family has to put up with the things they give up and also the connection that grows stronger as the cancer journey continues.
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

In Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, by: Jordan Sonnenblick Steven is a middle schooler who plays the drums for his schools band, but he also plays for another band made up of high schoolers and one other student, Annette from Steven’s school. At home, Steven has to deal with two parents and his annoying brother, Jeffery. One morning when a horrible accident causes Jeffery to have a nosebleed and go to the emergency room, Steven is left out of the loop of information. While at the emergency room, Jeffery’s mother learns that Jeffery has leukemia, an acute or chronic disease characterized by a gross proliferation of leucocytes, which crowd into the bone marrow, spleen, lymph nodes, etc, and suppresses the blood-forming apparatus. As Steven finds out, his world begins to cave in and all things go wrong, but his only escape in life is his drums.
Kira- Kira

Kira- Kira,by: Cynthia Kadohata is a book told from the perspective of Katie, a young Japanese girl with 2 parents, an older sister, Lynn, and a younger brother, Sammie. Katie’s parents have to struggle with keeping a good paying job because in, the time of the 1950s, Japanese people were considered low life. But as life goes on, Katie begins to notice her sister acting cautious. One day when Lynn suddenly becomes ill with lymphoma, Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. When Katie’s parents have to take Lynn to the hospital, they are left with a very sick child and a very large medical bill. So now they have to put up with double jobs and three children.

When I began reading these two books and showed them to people at school, nobody ever heard of the book or the author. It made me realize that kids these days only read what’s popular to everybody else. But these two books have actual life lessons and real events that could happen to anybody. Instead of kids reading Twilight, Harry Potter, or the Hunger Games series, they should explore their variety and look for semi-non-fiction books. I also like to read those books but sometimes it’s nice to have a change of plot.