Jenna’s mom thinks she has growing pains. But now the doctors are sending her to the hospital for the summer. Only old people get arthritis.

Angie and Me by Rebecca C. Jones

Rebecca Jones writes a compelling story about a young girl and her struggles as she deals with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.

It’s the summer before she would enter junior high school, and Jenna is hanging out at the pool and getting a tan. She is just a typical young teen, thinking about typical girl things and hanging out with her friends.

Jenna is afraid and lonely her first night in the hospital, but Angie, her roommate makes jokes and wisecracks to make light of the situation. Because her parents both work her mom won’t be able to stay at the hospital with her and so she must face it alone. The head nurse is like an army sergeant, but Jim, the orderly tries to make life a bit fun.

When her parents come to visit they find out that her little sister, Yolanda, can’t come up to visit. Even though her little sister used to bug her she really wanted to see her now that she hasn’t seen her for a while. Her roommate, Angie, has something wrong with her blood. Bill across the hall sits on his bed and shoots a basket across the room to a hoop. His roommate, Sam, sits by the hoop and retrieves and tosses the ball back to him. Sam has something wrong with his head.

Wendy has been in a car accident and is paralyzed. She states that her parents are going to sue the person who caused the accident. She has a private room but doesn’t want to spend much time in her own room and hangs out with the other kids. She has a chip on her shoulder and tries to take it out of the other kids.

Jenna hates her treatments, except for the hot whirlpool tub, but as she learns to use her walker, crutches and wheelchair she adjusts to her disease and tries to do what she should to help heal and hopefully keep her disease and the terrible pain in her knees in remission. Bad things are happening to her friends. Sam takes to wearing a beanie cap to cover his bald head and scars, and Bill loses his dream of becoming a basketball star. Angie gets sicker and sicker and has to be moved to a different room closer to the nurse station.

Before she gets to go home Jenna has the opportunity to help another young patient who becomes her roommate. Jenna has learned about fear and courage and caring and now she is ready to take the first steps toward maturity.

This book is from my personal library.