Grade Levels: 7-10
Category: Realistic Fiction
Read-Alouds: 3-8 (Garth Brooks concert); 51-54 (The lake house); 101-104 (How could I be so stupid?); 109-113 (All about AIDS)

Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Nancy has experienced a lot. She’d been to a real concert (well…sort of, it was Garth Brooks), fallen in love, and spent hours giggling with her best friend. But when Nancy is raped her whole world is full of new experiences, most significant—living with AIDS. Nancy’s diary about AIDS is not only heart-breaking, but also heart-warming as we see her family and friends rally around her in an attempt to make her last days memorable. Nancy’s death is inevitable, but the insight she provides about the journey is something each of us can learn from.

Themes:
Most central to the book is the theme of AIDS which Nancy contracts after being raped. She describes both in detail including the horrible ailments that come along with AIDS. The book seems to be intended as an attempt to save lives, as said on the back cover, but because Nancy contracted the virus through rape rather than unprotected sex, some students may be confused about the book’s message. Either way, the details of Nancy’s diary are enough to make each of us consider the fragility of life and would provide a good place for students to look for answers about a tricky subject.

Discussion Question:
1. Why did Nancy feel like the rape and resulting AIDS were somewhat her fault?
2. What message did you take from the editor’s comments on the book?
3. Why did Nancy hold so tightly to Lew?

Reader Response:
I suppose there was no way to for the book to live up to the rave reviews I had heard about it, but I didn’t hate the book. This was another stop on my trek to read about the issues teenagers face, and date rape is certainly one of them as are sexually transmitted diseases. What I didn’t like was the editor’s comments, especially the one on the back about how reading this book could save your life. Sure, knowing how horrible AIDS is could certainly encourage readers to practice safer sex or even abstinence, but Nancy contracted AIDS when she was raped, not during an act of carelessness. The editor’s comments almost made it seem as though Nancy was, in some way, to blame for what happened to her and she does not do enough to explain that rape was in NO WAY Nancy’s fault. I would include this book on a reading list and may even teach it in class, but it certainly wasn’t my favorite.

Well, it was about a girl named Nancy. She Met a boy at the Garth Brooks concert and they started talking to eash other and they started to hang out with each other. One day when Nancy's Mother wasn't home she was on a bussiness trip and Colin came over and they started to kiss and tried to do stuff she said no but he did anyway so he raped her and she died from AIDS.
A.C

Not a big fan..most of the book was her thinking it was her own fault that she was raped, & making excuses for her rapist. ( )