By: Amanda Rawson HillAn inspiring coming-of-age novel in verse about weathering the uncertainty that comes with family illness.Cass and her parents havent let her dads cancer stop them from having a good lifefull of love and poems and one annual World Ser
By: Amanda Rawson Hill
Cass and her parents havent let her dads cancer stop them from having a good lifefull of love and poems and one annual World Series game. Now that Dads cancer is back, Cass overhears the doctor say that she has a 50% chance of inheriting her dad’s genetic mutation, Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Theres a genetic test Cass can take that will tell her for sure. Theres still so much she wants to doplay baseball, study at the zoo, travel the world with her best friend, Jayla. Would it be better not to know?
When it turns out Dads cancer is worse this time, Cass is determined to keep up their World Series tradition while navigating all the change and uncertainty that lies ahead.
Poignant and powerful, Casss story brings the pains and anxiety linked with illness to the surface, and reminds us that sometimes hope is worth holding on to.
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Amanda Rawson Hill, author
Amanda Rawson Hill never thought she was a writer growing up. But then the need to write tugged at her. The Hope of Elephants is based on an inherited genetic syndrome that affects members of Amanda’s family. Amanda is also the author of one picture book, You’ll Find Me, and a middle-grade novel, The Three Rules of Everyday Magic. Amanda also enjoys playing the piano, knitting, reading, homeschooling her children, playing board games, and eating kale.
Read more about Amanda.
Kirkus Reviews
A tween holds on to hope as her father repeatedly battles cancer.
Ever since she was 4, Cass and her parents have attended every World Series, the trips a gift to her father from his former employer as he was fighting his second round of cancer. Now, hes been diagnosed with yet another kind of cancer, but Cass is determined theyll get to go one last time. On her 12th birthday, Cass learns that her dad has Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a gene mutation that makes him susceptible to cancerand theres a 50% chance that she has it too. Now, she must decide if she will take a test to see whether she carries a mutated p53 gene. Hope comes from a study of elephants, which have 20 sets of p53 genesa doctor is even studying elephants at her local zoo in Utah. Beautifully told in verse, the novel contains hopeful imagery inspired by Cass persistence, visits to the zoos elephants, and the familys faith, which is effortlessly woven into the narrative and is cued as being the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Literature rarely portrays life with someone who is immunocompromised; this story shows the limitations Cass faces at times, for example, in seeing friends and playing baseball. Shes also home-schooled in part to help keep her father safe. Cass and her family are presumed White.
Tenderly written; a heartening look at a tough reality.
Publishers Weekly
On her 12th birthday, Cassandra Hollenss father is diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a mutated p53 gene that makes him susceptible to cancer (which visits my dad/ in all the odd years/ of my life). Cass is used to the routine that attends his cancer treatmenttrips to the hospital, sanitizing, and homeschooling to avoid germsbut when she realizes she may have the same mutation, she grapples with whether to find out for sure. As her dads condition worsens, Cass looks into a local study of elephants, which have 20 sets of the cancer-fighting p53 gene, and seeks a way to get her dad to another World Series, which the family has attended eight times following an early bout of his illness. This compassionate verse novel by Hill (Youll Find Me) holds space for Casss wide-ranging feelings, tracing through the tweens blunt, realistic voice the way that baseball, close friendships, and the familys connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offer succor. An ongoing pro/con list reveals Casss relatable struggles and closely held dreamsto play baseball, travel the worldbut also a stark truth: life cant be boiled down to a list. Protagonists read as white; Casss best friend cues as Black. Ages 10up.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-259-7
Ages: 10 and up
Page count: 480
5 1/2 x 8 1/4
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