Forever Changes

by Brendan Halpin

Book Overview

5:30 a.m., Brianna Pelletier gets ready for her daily pounding. As she lies on the couch, her dad beats her chest, then her back, coaxing the mucus out of her lungs. The pounding doesn't take care of everything. Brianna's held out for a long time, but a body with cystic fibrosis doesn't last forever. It doesn't matter that Brianna has a brilliant mathematical mind or that she's a shoo-in for MIT. Or even that her two best friends are beautiful, popular,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374324360
• ISBN13: 9780374324360
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 181 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 14 to 19 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Incredible!

Like Brianna, I live with Cystic Fibrosis. Fortunately, I have a lesser case than her and am as healthy as any kid my age. I was able to relate to her thinking and I was happy that somebody finally wrote a story about a brave girl with CF. This book touched my heart and I would reccomend it to anyone.

What a great book!

This book was beautifully written with a great message. It tore at my emotions and made me want to read it all in one sitting. I recommend this book!

LOVED IT!

This is a great, easy read that addresses illness with candor, compassion and humor--all from a teen's perspective. The characters are unforgettable. Halpin does a great job crafting his characters from pieces of people we've all known in our lives. 5 stars--mos def!

This is a very touching book about a young woman's courage to fight a disease..

This is a story of a young girls fight to live and live she does until the very end. I recommend this very touching book to young people fighting emotional and physical and healthy issues.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Brianna Pelletier was born with a death sentence. Her DNA gave her Cystic Fibrosis. The only unknown for Brianna is how long she will have. It's Brianna's senior year and while her friends are planning for college, Brianna's plans are far simpler: live to see graduation. She never intended to go to college. She never believed she'd survive this long. But things are going pretty good. She's managed to avoid any serious infections and remain out of the hospital. She fears that if she needs to return to the hospital, she'll never leave. Well, she'd never leave alive. So as senior year progress, she gains insight into what it means to really live, by an unlikely source - her ailing math teacher. Her alphabetically placed study buddy, Adam, hears a rumor that Mr. Eccles was in a band, Love, in the past. Downloading the music, Adam shares the bizarre album, Forever Changes, with Brianna. The music reaches a part of her that she could never put into words. After hearing the music, and then encountering Mr. Eccles one evening on a deserted beach, the two form an understanding with each other. Through Brianna's dad's gentle love, the nerdy pressure from Adam, and the desire to live courtesy of Mr. Eccles, Brianna takes living to the next step - she attends an information session at MIT and takes the scariest step of her life, sending in her application. This action could bring hope or despair. On one level, she fears that by sending it in, she is hexing herself that she will never live to see her admission to MIT. But on another level, she doesn't want to die and wants some ray of hope, something to live for. In Brianna, Mr. Halpin shares with readers both a wish to live and a desire to not die, which really are not one and the same. Brianna does her best with the hand she's been dealt. More than anything, she dreams of being like everyone else without a care in the world, but she has greater obstacles to overcome. She does so bravely and without blame. She's an inspiring character to curl up and share a few hours with. Reviewed by: Jaglvr