Back to Blog and Still on Caring Bridge and FB, Too...Here's that John Green book review.

John Green, Cancer, and A Girl Named Rosy


Sometime ago, precancer, I decided to write something I would call “The Ten Minute Book Review” – so named, not because it was a quickie timed-writing exercise or anything, but because I wondered what might come of immediately writing about a novel (well, within ten minutes) upon finishing reading the last page.

Miracles do happen. I feel like writing again. At least I feel like writing a new TMBR, which is more than I’ve been doing other than journaling and writing thank-you notes for the past year, so it’s perhaps a mini-miracle. I’ll take it.

So there’s this teenaged girl named Rosy I met a few months back who has excellent literary sense (which means it reminds me of my own). She actually clapped when we began our poetry unit in class. She loves John Green. She asked me for extra books to read! She gave me a reading list!

Something good was going to come of this.

If you don’t know John Green, it’s like this: he writes award-winning (like Printz and Edgar) young adult novels that young adults (and aging English teachers) actually love to read. A couple of weeks before school was out for the summer, Rosy showed up with Green’s latest book, The Fault in Our Stars. A signed copy, no less.

She wanted to lend it to me. Knowing I was hopelessly behind in grading final essays and not trusting myself to read a treasured autographed copy of a book without smudging it with chocolate or dropping it into the bath tub, I thanked her and said, “I’ll order it and let you know what I think.” We hugged. I promised to email her.

I teach literature to 8th graders. Mostly classics. Much of The Call of the Wild and The Diary of Anne Frank have committed themselves to my otherwise feeble memory.

I am just arrived at my one year cancer survivor anniversary; in fact, I’m having my first post op, post chemo, CAT scan tomorrow morning.

(This will all come together soon. Stay with me.)

So what is it about this book, The Fault in Our Stars, that made Rosy feel it necessary I read, and I feel it necessary to write about?

It’s the fictional first person narrative of a teenaged girl named Hazel. It’s sharply written, painful and humorous. It’s about Love. Reading. Writing. Friendship. Parenting. Anne Frank. The Universe, and Cancer. .

I refuse to tell you more. Just read it and let me know what you think.

Thanks, Rosy!