Diego Lasansky

Dear Jordan Sonnenblick,

The book Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie changed how I think about cancer. This book changed my perspective because the book showed me how painful cancer can be for a family and how bad it can be. It changed what I thought were bad problems, like losing a ball or moving to a different state. I thought those were bad, but looking at what families of children with cancer go through, I think this is much more painful. Now I know how badly cancer can affect families.

I learned that when someone in your family has cancer, your family usually comes closer together. My brother and I are like Jeffery and Steven because Steven thinks his younger brother is annoying, just like my older brother thinks I am annoying. Even though we try to annoy our older brothers we still love them. Jeffery and Steven became closer in the book because Jeffery had cancer and needed a friend. After reading this book, I now see how much I love my brother. I would be very sad if something happened to him. My brother and I have more in common then Steven and Jeffery. We are closer in age, so we hang out more then Steven and Jeffery. My brother and I love playing hockey together. After reading this book, I realize how lucky I am to have my brother.

I learned some things about cancer treatments. The author isn't very specific about the treatments. I think he did not tell us more because there are so many different treatments. If he told you more, someone might think that is the only way it happens. This book taught me that cancer treatments are not fun. They can make you lose your hair and throw up. I learned that it can be very scary to have a brother in the hospital when you don't know if he is going to get better. Thinking about that makes getting upset about loosing a ball seem like a silly thing because a ball can be replaced but you cannot replace your brother. I would never want my brother to get sick like Jeffery and have to go to the hospital for cancer treatments.

This book taught me that some people have trouble dealing with cancer. The father in the book couldn't talk about it for a long time. I have noticed that most of the time, when people don't want to talk about things, you have to wait until they want to talk about it, or until they are ready to talk about it. When my cat died, my mom didn't want to talk about it for a while.
This book taught me about cancer and what people have to go through. It made me thankful that my family is healthy. This book is good to read if you don't know about cancer because it shows you what it is like and it makes you use your imagination to fill in some of the details.

Sincerely,
Diego Lasansky