The Moth Girl

Flying doesn’t always mean freedom.\nAnna is a regular teenaged girl. She runs track with her best friend, gets good grades, and sometimes drinks beer at parties.\nBut one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious . . . but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity in the disturbing first symptom of a mysterious disease.\nThis begins a series of trips to the hospital that soon become Anna’s norm. She’s diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.\nAnna’s world is turned upside down, and as she learns to cope with her illness, she finds herself drifting further and further away from her former life. Her friends don’t seem to understand, running track is out of the question, and the other kids at the disease clinic she attends once a week are a cruel reminder that things will never be the same.\nFrom debut author Heather Kamins comes a beautiful and evocative story about one girl’s journey of choosing who she wants to be--in a life she never planned for.\nFrom School Library Journal\nGr 9 Up-A strange incident at track practice causes Anna's friend Smilla to observe, "You're floating." It's a sign that Anna has a chronic illness-invented by the author (and explained in an afterword), whose novel explores permanent and life-threatening illness. Weekly hospital visits and blood work, discussions of pain management medications and their proper doses, and group therapy become the norm for Anna. She loathes talking with doctors about her symptoms, such as trembling limbs, fatigue, and a craving for sugar, because they reveal "all these ways my body [is] betraying me." Anna must slow down-which means quitting the team and prioritizing her health over schoolwork-to survive. She feels alone, and that's not far from the truth: Her parents, although steadfast, are preoccupied by the stress of taking care of her. Friends (who, like the protagonist, are white) either can't face the gravity of Anna's diagnosis or see it as a curiosity. Opening up to another sick teenager in her therapy group releases Anna from the hurt that her isolation and fear have caused. Next steps include embracing her art and repairing the relationship with Smilla; neither is a cure, but both help Anna remember who she is and who she still can be. VERDICT A tenth grader's sudden diagnosis of a fictitious condition gives readers an opportunity to see what it takes to manage a chronic illness; also recommended for readers seeking to understand living with a chronic condition-their own or someone close to them.-Georgia Christgauα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.