Side Effects [Hardcover]

Amy Goldman Koss (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

As if it doesn't suck enough to have cancer, practically every time you pick up books or see movies where characters get sick, you know they'll be dead by the last scene. In reality, kids get all kinds of cancers, go through unspeakable torture and painful treatments, but walk away fine in the end. From the acclaimed author of The Girls and Poison Ivy, Side Effects is about the pain, fear, and unlikely comedy of 15-year-old Izzy's journey, told in her own powerful and authentic voice. It is Izzy's story--screams and all.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–A problem novel thats nicely paced and easy to read. Ultra-normal teenager Izzy learns that she has stage IV Hodgkins lymphoma. She undergoes standard treatments, withstands her newfound pity-popularity at school, leans on her best friend, and grows in her understanding of her mother. She narrates with a relatively light, joke-cracking tone as her ballpoint pen doodles cartoon jibes at the things making her uncomfortable. Throughout, readers see how the teens condition affects her loving family and supportive best friend. Reassured by the preface, they will have no fear of Izzys recovery. Rather, the story focuses in great detail on her treatments and how she gets through them, holding out for a future in which she will have long, braided hair and a boyfriend who can deal with serious stuff like cancer. Readers witness every hospital visit, every injection–everything that goes in, and the color of what comes out (with some spectacular pukes). The book has realistically typical teenage characters and apparently solid research into various Childrens Hospital patients and their treatments, but its not too heavy, complex, or long.–Rhona Campbell, Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Fourteen-year-old Isabella is a typical teenager. She is concerned with friends, school, and gaining weight until the fateful morning that she discovers the enlarged glands in her neck. With the subsequent diagnosis of stage-four Hodgkin's lymphoma, she enters the netherworld of cancer: IVs, PICC lines (which she refuses), chemotherapy, hair loss, nausea and more nausea, and even medical marijuana. It's a harsh, realistic story of teen cancer, one that author Koss describes in her introduction as Issy's "descent into hell, with a safe return." Chronicling the appearance, disappearance, and rearrangement of friends, which will remind readers of Cynthia Voigt's Izzy Willy-Nilly (1986), as well as the overwhelming side effects as the chemo takes its toll, Koss refuses to glamorize Issy's illness or treatment. Instead, she settles for an honesty and frankness that will both challenge and enlighten readers. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; First Edition edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596432942
• ISBN-13: 978-1596432949
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,397,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

www.AmyGoldmanKoss.net

Born in Michigan. Now living in California with husband, kids, pets, cars, furniture, vegetable garden...
Over-eating, over-sleeping, over-reading, and typing like mad.

I write to, for, and about people between the ages of 11 and 15 because that is the trickiest, stickiest, and most bizarre age I've lived through --so far.
What I want my readers to remember about my books is that they LOVED them!

And YES I do school and library visits!
Cheers! xoxox Amy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Girl's Battle with Cancer, May 20, 2007

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Side Effects (Hardcover)

From the author of The Girls (a realistic look into the inner workings of an all-girl clique) comes a novel about an almost-fifteen-year-old who is diagnosed with lymphoma. The once-healthy Izzy is suddenly hospital-bound. The faces of the nurses, doctors, and counselors who surround her blur as she undergoes chemotherapy. Meanwhile, her mom is a mess, her father is fairly steady, her little brother doesn't quite understand what is going on, and her best friend isn't allowed to visit her.

While her body battles cancer, Izzy's tongue stays as sharp as the needles that the nurses stick in her arm. Instead of a book riddled with angst, the story details Izzy's treatments and her physical and emotions reactions bluntly. Instead of being a sob story, this is the story of survival. Izzy refuses to give up, and readers won't give up this book until they've reached the final page. Well-done.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, February 15, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Side Effects (Hardcover)

Izzy wakes up one morning concerned because her glands are still swollen from a recent sickness--and she soon discovers that she has cancer. She's placed into a children's hospital where people come talk to her until she no longer hears what they're talking about. All she can do is concentrate on drawing.

Her mother is a basket case and Izzy is in shock.

Now her life has drastically changed. People who were her friends no longer talk to her and people she's never talked to are fake around her. She doesn't quite know how to react, but it's not with the anger her best friend feels.

Izzy goes though treatments: pain, the puking, and the needles, but still never loses her sense of humor.

SIDE EFFECTS takes a deep look into the medical and emotional roller-coaster of cancer patients. With Izzy, you hear the knowledge first-hand, which makes you both laugh and cry.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leisure readers in grades 4-8 will find it outstanding., January 6, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Side Effects (Hardcover)

Izzy has cancer - and is back in school trying to catch up. Her descent into illness - and struggle to retain to a world of normalcy - makes SIDE EFFECTS an outstanding survey of cancer recovery, delving into much more than the usual physical issues of struggling with cancer. Leisure readers in grades 4-8 will find it outstanding.