Written by Jordyn Leavens
The novel that I am reading is “I’m Not Her” by Janet Gurtler. It is about the struggles a young girl, named Tess, goes through when she finds out that her sister, Kristina, was diagnosed with cancer. Tess has always been looking up to her older sister, because her sister was always the center of the crowd, sporty, beautiful one and Tess was always the smart, un-popular one. It was always hard on Tess, so when her sister was diagnosed with cancer, she felt as if she could finally be known. All of Kristina’s friends started befriending Tess, now that her sister wasn’t at school. Although Tess loved the popularity, she did have a lot of trouble too. Not a lot of people were asking how Tess was doing about the whole cancer situation but there was one person who was always there for her. His name was Clark. After talking days upon days with him, Tess began to want to be more then friends with him. But Tess also knew that she had to be there for her sister and didn’t have time to have a serious love life at that point in time. Then Tess met a boy from school named Jeremy. Jeremy has a little crush on Kristina, but is also now good friends with Tess. Tess was wondering why he would always talk about Kristina, and then he finally informed her that he always hangs out with her at the hospital when he is visiting his mother, who also has cancer.
My initial response once I read the first third of the book was that I am really going to enjoy it. I thought that because it has a very strong plot which makes it very interesting for me to read. I like how the author gets right to the point, but still makes you think about what is going on in the novel. Another thing that made me think it will be a good book is that it is very realistic so I can relate to what’s happening and really understand the things going on.
A few things that I really like about this novel that I really like are that the author writes with a