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The author:
The popular novelist and freelance writer, Lurlene McDaniel, was born on April 5th, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has written over fourty novels about kids and teens who face life-threatening illnesses and who sometimes don\'t survive. It is quite easy to see why McDaniel is such a well-liked writer. She knows from experience what to write about and she writes about an issue that is rarely discussed with young people.
\"I write the kind of books I write because
I want to help kids to understand
that nobody gets to pick what life
dishes out to them.
What you do gel to choose is how
you respond to what life gives you.
No matter what happens, life is a gift.
And always worth living. \"
Lurlene McDaniel
Main characters:
Leah Lewis-Hall:
She is a sixteen-year-old confused and lonely girl. Leah doesn\'t have any friends because they have just moved. She is alone during Christmas holidays and in addition her doctor sends her to the hospital because of a broken finger. The girl is very cynic and in the beginning too superficial. During the Christmas holiday she has many experiences and she has to cope with many problems.
Ethan Longacre:
He is an Amish boy. Ethan is very polite and for Leah strange. The young guy believes in his own way of life. After some time he falls in love with Leah. There\'s just one problem: He is Amish and Leah is \"English\". In contrast to his parents he doesn\'t think that it is wrong to love an \"English\" girl.
Summary:
At the beginning of the Christmas holidays Leah is not happy at all. She is spending the twelve days of Christmas in an Indianapolis hospital, while her mother is on a honeymoon with her husband number five. The girl went to the doctor with not more than a broken finger, but he ordered her to undergo same tests. Now she is stuck in the hospital, alone.
Then she meets her new room-mate, a young Amish girl called Rebekah, and her big family.
She has never known people like this before. The Amish family captivates Leah with its simple, loving way.
They live in a nice, simple community, without cars, telephones or television. The family lives always seperate from the \"English\".
First Leah doesn\'t understand how they can live in such a different way, but she learns to know how to live on the values of love, forgiveness and peace. She is also a little bit in love with Ethan, Rebekah\' s good-looking brother.
While the girl becomes more and more familiar with the Amish culture, she receives shattering information about her health.
Before the doctors make the last X ray treatment with Leah, Rehekah has become so well again that she can go home. Leah is shocked because she knows that she will never see them again.
But there is a big \"goodbye\" from Ethan: he kisses her the first time.
Short after they leave she gets the results: she has hone cancer! In the next days her mother returns because the doctor has called her.
The doctors suggest to amputate Leah\' s Ieg. The girl\' s mother doesn\'t\' t agree, she wants her daughter to do a chemotherapy first.
Leah is really upset, she wants to stay alone, hut suddenly the door opens and Ethan
comes in!
He tells her that he bad a dream and that Leah would need him. Leah is very happy about that and tells him about the cancer.
The following night the girl sleeps very well. Late in the night she wakes up. Someone is in the room and the person comes to her bed. She has seen her once before and she knows that her name\' s Gabriella. The person tells Leah that she is coming to help her. Gabriella takes her by the bands and lays them on her wounded knee.
Leah wonders a little bit what this all means, but when she gets the results of her next X ray treatment, she is only happy. Her cancer is cancer smaller than the doctors thought first and they don\'t need to cut off her leg.
So her new friends show her that miracles can happen and that sometimes angels appear in the most unexpected moments.
Personal opinion:
This book touched my heart, I really enjoyed reading it. My opinion is that it\' a special book and, as Lurlene McDaniel said, her books challenge the reader and make him think.
It has a deeper meaning. I also really like it because I think that I belong to those people who often question things like the meaning of life etc. and I don\'t have just superficial thoughts.
There isn\'t any scene or character in the book I didn\'t like, hut the person I like best ...you will laugh...is Gabriella. She\'s an angel and angels are wonderful creatures. They help people and do just good deeds- that\'s what we as humans are not able to be like...
I also love angels because of their appearance - they are gold and white and have cute wings.
But there are two different kinds of angels: those who I described before and those who look like
normal people - their wings are invisible.
I wouldn\'t gay that I don\'t like Leah\'s mother, I just can\'t identify with her war of living (fifth husband Jeaves her young daughter alone because she goes on a honeymoon,.. . )
And, of course, my favourite scene is when Gabriella comes into Leah\'s room and cures her in a war.
There\'s just one thing in the book I didn\'t like so much, in fact the late appearance of the angel. But on the other hand, if the angel would appear at the beginning of the book, it would lose its magical touch.
The message of the book is, I think, that sometimes things happen in our lire we don\'t expect and which can\'t be explained by our rational thinking. Because sometimes our eyes are wide shut and that\'s what we should grapple with!
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