Hoffman wrote this book in 1988, when AIDS was still very new and misunderstood. It is the heartbreaking story of Amanda, a budding gymnast who is diagnosed with AIDS, contracted through a blood transfusion. This depicts the struggle of the family to understand what is happening, while facing ostracism from members of the community. Have tissues nearby ( )

Like all of Ms Hoffman's books, this is a winner, the story of a family struggling with the terminal illness of a child. Eleven year old Amanda, contracts the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion, given five years prior. Written in 1988, at a time when AIDS was a speedy death verdict, the book also chronicles the intolerance and prejudice such families endured. Amanda wants to stay in school but many parents don't want her there.
The book is far superior to Jodi Picault's "My Sister's Keeper" and I highly recommend it . ( )

Polly and Ivan Farrell are a nice, small-town Massachusetts family, with two kids, Amanda, eleven, an aspiring gymnast, and Charlie, eight, a bright boy interested in science. Their lives change dramatically when Amanda is suddenly diagnosed with AIDS, the result of a blood transfusion five years earlier when Amanda had her appendix removed. The family's attempts to come to terms with Amanda's condition create a ripple effect through Polly's parents, Amanda's gym coach and his daughter Jessie (Amanda's best friend), Charlie's best fried, Polly's business partner, a middle-aged woman with possible psychic ability, the school principal, an HIV hotline worker, and the Farrell's family doctor and his wife. The narrative switches so frequently among the characters that the novel is far more concerned with the coping and mutual support of a community than that of any individual. Although the subject matter is unhappy, the tone is not just a tearjerking downer. Amidst the grief and fear, Hoffman manages to highlight positive relationships and convictions that strengthen the characters during Amanda's illness. ( )

soppy rubbish about a little girl with HIV