Send Me a Sign

December 3, 2012
First-time author Schmidt gracefully incorporates weighty subject matterâa teenager battling leukemiaâinto an inspirational yet unsentimental novel about love, trust, and hope. After receiving her diagnosis, popular cheerleader Mia Mooreâwho obsessively seeks out hidden symbols and signs to determine her decision-makingâfaces two problems: surviving chemotherapy and following her mother's suggestion to keep her illness secret. Mia has already explained her condition to her longtime neighbor and confidante, Gyver, but his unconditional support doesn't make it any easier to lie to her girlfriends and her new boyfriend, Ryan. Pretending nothing is wrong is as taxing as her cancer treatments, and when Mia finally confesses the truth to Ryan and the cheerleading squad, their reactions are not what she expects. The dramatic physical changes Mia undergoes are honestly addressed, yet they are less in the forefront than her emotional transformation. Schmidt's heroine believably vacillates between stoicism and indignation as she learns to rely less on superstitious signals to predict her future and more on herself, taking charge of the matters within her control. Ages 12âup. Agent: Joe Monti, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

September 15, 2012
A teen with cancer stresses out over all the wrong things. When Mia's diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, she tells childhood best friend and boy next door Gyver (yes, short for MacGyver) but not her kinda-boyfriend or her best girlfriends and fellow cheerleaders, the Calendar Girls (Mia is Summer). She invents an extended trip to visit ill grandparents as cover for her summer in the hospital and then does her best to fake it once school starts. Gyver's devotion--he rarely leaves her side all summer long--morphs into jealousy when Mia finally confesses the truth to Ryan, who proves himself pretty devoted, too, making for a very mildly suspenseful love triangle. When a novel's action consists of the protagonist's decision not to tell people she's dangerously ill (most of Mia's treatment is told, not shown), it needs to compensate for the lack of plot with something else--astonishing characterization or spectacular language, for instance. This debut does not. Characters are largely one-dimensional, even Mia. Her superstitious nature (see title) feels tacked-on, and although she tells readers at one point that she had been in the running for valedictorian before her illness, she mostly seems as vapid as her friends. Add lines like, "His blue eyes glowed from within the faint outline of his Oakley's tan line," and you have a book that arrives at its moment of truth far too late. The topic has been handled far better elsewhere. (Fiction. 13-16)

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February 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-It's the summer after her junior year, and Mia Moore is all set to spend it with her three closest friends poolside. School break is barely underway when she finds out that she has leukemia, and most of her vacation is spent in the hospital undergoing intensive chemotherapy. Always superstitious, Mia is constantly looking for signs to help guide her life. One of her pals comments that she hates hospitals, and Mia interprets this as a sign to not tell her friends about her illness. Her mother, who is having trouble dealing with the diagnosis, agrees with her decision. The teen elects to only confide in her oldest childhood friend and neighbor, Gyver, who spends his summer caring for her. When senior year starts, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep her cancer a secret. In a weak moment, she tells handsome Ryan. Both he and Gyver vie for her affection and Mia, barely coping with her illness and mourning the loss of her female friends, finds her life slipping out of control. Her decision not to tell her friends is somewhat unbelievable, as is their inability to recognize that she is seriously ill. While not as nuanced-or witty-as other stories of teens with cancer, such as Wendy Wunder's Probability of Miracles (Razorbill, 2011) or John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012), Schmidt's debut is compelling; it has heartbreak and tragedy, but hope as well.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY

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