Maeve L: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie
Hi Trevor, this is Maeve. I just finished Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. It was such a great book. It had such a compelling beginning. I couldn’t believe Jeffery had cancer! The author did a great job describing Steven’s love and dedication to his little brother. Steven stayed the whole time in the hospital room with Jeffery when they had to do a whole battery of test on him. The author also excelled at showing how brave Jeffery was. I could not have anyone stick a needle in my chest! Anyway, I felt like I was right in the hospital room when Jeffery was having the needle stuck in his chest. I also like how the story was a reflection that had many little reflections in it. This book kind of reminded me of The Fault in our Stars from what I’ve heard (I haven’t read it yet) because of the whole cancer idea. Anyhow, I really enjoyed this book and I hope you do too!
-Maeve
5 Replies to “Maeve L: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie”
Hey Maeve!
I finished reading Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie yesterday and I now understand why you were able to read it so fast. It was a great book! I totally agree with you about the beginning of Steven’s story. I really had no previous knowledge of what this book was about so finding out that Jeffrey had cancer really shocked me. I expected Steven’s story would consist of journal entries detailing how his brother was annoying. Boy was I wrong. Instead the story shifted to the struggles a family endures when a loved one falls victim to illness.
One of the big themes I pulled from this book was the grieving process itself. In my senior year of high school I took an English class called Thanatology, the study of death and dying and the psychological mechanisms of dealing with them. It was a pretty creepy class I must admit, but we learned a lot about the grieving process and coping mechanisms people use. You’re probably like what the heck am I talking about but right now but hopefully it will make sense here in a minute. We learned that when a person experiences grief or some kind loss, that he or she would go through 5 stages until they are able to “move on.” Isolation and denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance make up the 5 stages. There is no particular order or length that each stage will occur, but if the grieving process is to eventually end, then it will always end in acceptance.
I thought this book did a great job of showing how older brother Steven grieved during the time of his brother’s illness. It is a great perspective into the difficult life and confused mind of a 13-year-old eighth grade boy during his tough time. As I read I noticed Steven going through these stages eventually ending with acceptance.
In the beginning I picked up on his denial and isolation stage. Denial came when Jeffery and his mom returned home from Philly and Steven is expecting them to say the doctor’s made mistakes with the test and Jeffery would be fine. Isolation followed shortly after he came to grip on his first day back at school. Steven then shut himself off to the outside world and school became a non-factor in his life. Anger could be seen by Steven directed at Annette and his Dad. He was angry and snapped at Annette when she kept trying to pry information of him on the bus. Steven also got mad at his father for keeping him out of the loop in the early stage of Jeffery’s treatment. Another stage that was easily observed was the bargaining stage. There was a whole chapter called “Take Me” that involved Steven making a bunch of small promises to God hoping that if he followed through then he would be rewarded by his brother being healthy again. The end of the chapter it concluded with the speakers at the school dance calling Steven out of the dance and “right on the spot, without knowing what exactly was going on, [he] made God one final offer, ‘Take me. Don’t take Jeffy. Please, Lord. Take me’”(Pg 54-ebook).
So I gave examples for the denial and isolation stage, the anger stage, and the bargaining stage. I was hoping that you could maybe look for an example or two of the last two stages, depression and acceptance?? Then after we can talk about your ideas and what you responded with, maybe even you noticed a theme different than the grieving process. Hopefully this is not too much for you; please let me know if so. I look forward to your response and in the meantime I will be reading some more of Wonder.
-Trevor
Ps- Just curious what is the next book on your list that you are reading?
So sorry, I haven’t gotten back to you sooner. My next two books are Butter by Erin Lange and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. I think an example of the depression would be when Steven was so upset by his brother illness that he completely zoned out of class. If my brother was that sick I probably wouldn’t go to school at all. An example of acceptance would be when he started trying to save money and make deals with God. This showed that he had accepted that his brother had ALL and was trying to fix it.
I noticed that a theme that happened was that you should always put others before yourself. An example of this is when Steven skipped his drum concert and dance for his little brother or when Renee and Annette decided to make the concert into a fundraiser. I am glad you liked this book!
Hi again,
Guess what? There is a sequel to Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. It’s called After Ever After. I’ve heard it’s supposed to be better than the first one. I looked it up and found a preview of it. It’s all about how Jeffery is after cancer. It’s all from Jeffrey’s point of view too. Here’s the link to the ebook version demo:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/sample/read/9780439837088
Anyways I can’t wait to read it. Bye!
Hey Maeve! I got caught up in our other posts that I forgot to come back to this one. I totally agree with you about Steven’s depression stage. He tuned out of reality and just sat in his own world for quite some time. I am so happy you found the sequel! I really enjoyed the first one so when I am done with Chocolate War I think I will pick this one up for my free book! Thanks for the suggestion.
-Trevor