McDaniel, Lurlene: Too Young To Die

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The book was written by Lurlene McDaniel, who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She wrote this book, because one of her sons was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Other books written by her:

Good by doesn’t mean forever

Time to let go

Now I lay me down to sleep

Summary:

Melissa Austin, a 16- year old girllives with her brother Michael and her mother in Tampa, Florida and she wants to become a lawyer. She and her best friend

Jory Delaney are juniors at Lincoln High. In contrast with Jory Melissa wants to spend her third year just studying that she gets a scholarship to go to Princeton.

One day Mr .Wilson , a teacher asks her if she wants to visit the Brain Bowl team. This is a chance for the brightest students frorn each high school to come together and test their knowledge against each other in a team setting. It is an honor for her, because she would be the first junior ever in this team and so she is very proud.

Their target is to win for the school colours green and gold therefore they selected her. Also Brad Kessing, the boy she is interested in, is a mernber. A few days after this happy news Mrs. Cane, the PE teacher calls her and asks about her bruises all over her body. She thinks her mother beats her so Melissa is ernbarrassed and runs away. When her mum comes horne they go to see the doctor and he takes some

blood of her. He checks it and then he tells her that the red blood count is to low and the withe cell count to high. So Melissa thinks she has anernia and wants to

take pills. But Dr. Pace has a supposition and sends her to the hospita1 to do a bone marrow aspiration. The next day two doctors tells her that she is diagnosed with lymphocytic leukernia, a form of cancer. Melissa is shocked and her dreams of a

perfect life are burried once and she wants to die. She does not even wants to see her own family. But one day Ricter Davis visits her accidentally and he gives her new lifecourage because he has also cancer, bone cancer and they amputated his leg.

He is the on1y person, who understands her. The next couple of months Melissa has to do a lot of tests and has to take a lot of medication. But it is not helping so she wants

to die again. But then she meets 4- year old Rachel and they ta1k about their problems and this innocent child opens Melissa her eyes and she starts to learn again and thinks that she will be hea1thy again. Meanwhile Jory handels it that Melissa can go ahead with the Brain Bowls drillers even though she missed a lot. After the cherno therapy Melissa always feels weak but she does not abandon hope. Later Dr. Rowan tells her that she is in remission and can go back horne. But she a1so wants to go to school.

First the doctor was against it because the danger of infection is to high but Melissa promises hirn to wear a mask. So he gives his consent to this plan. Melissa does all her SA Ts and gets the highest number of points. But a1l people stare at her because

she has to wear a wig because she lost her beautiful hair in the chemo. And everywhere she comes she hears people whispering the word cancer. Only Jory stays at her side but this was to less for her. Brad does not see her anymore because he has a new girlfriend. The only boy who wants to date with her is Ric. He really loves her and invites her to a weekend trip but she is not sure about her feelings for hirn so she cuts off the relationship. At the end she is one of the finalists,even though they first did not want to take her because they had prejudices, almost as pretty as before. She wins against the cancer in her head and gets a second chance to start her life.

Vocabulary

contrast Gegenteil

bruises blaue Flecken innocent unschuldig supposition Vermutung accidental zufällig brightest besten

setting Umgebung

target Zielsetzung abandon aufgeben

consent Einverständnis wig Perrücke