Koss, Amy Goldman. (2006). Side Effects. NY: Roaring Brook Press.
ISBN: 978-1596432949
Awards/Honors: ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2007)
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Cancer, Chemotherapy, Death, Friends, Family, Survival
Genre: Fiction
Annotation: Izzy Miller is 15 when she is diagnosed with cancer. While dealing with chemotherapy, scared parents, fake friends, puking, and going bald, Izzy maintains her sardonic sense of humor.
Summary: After recovering from a minor illness, Izzy notices that her glands are still really swollen. A visit to her doctor sets in motion the life changing diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma: cancer. Sent to the Children’s Hospital in L.A., Izzy meets kids with sickle cell, leukemia, lymphoma and other diseases. Koss details Izzy's chemo regimen and the side effects thereof; nausea, hair loss, cold sores, etc. While Izzy deals with her sickness, the people around her also react. Her mother can only cry, her father fixates on remission statistics, and some classmates react with cruelty. Her best friend Kay is angry, but stays by her side and her Aunt Lucy manages to stay level headed through the ordeal. Readers know from the beginning that Izzy is going to live, but we live through this trying (both emotionally and physically) part of life with her.
Evaluation: This is a quick read, but gets to the heart of a serious illness. I did enjoy the banal realness of Izzy, and I say banal because she is just trying to live a normal teen existance but cannot because of things beyond her control. Izzy also uses humor to help alleviate the fear in herself and the fear of those around her.
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