The Listen & Be Heard Hour for Readers & Writers
s2e39, s2e40
Marissa Eller
Joined at the Joints
Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed inside baking all summer—pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her (also) chronically ill mom and sister cook up a plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to say more than a few words.
And she certainly doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is CUTE: class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. He has the same illness as her—juvenille rheumatoid arthritis—and he actually understands Ivy’s world. But just because he understands her pain doesn’t mean he can take it away, and she wishes he could… because it’s getting worse. Ivy has always tried her best to seem “normal,” but between symptom management, new treatment plans, and struggling with medical self-advocacy, being sick feels more and more difficult. With her energy plummeting, even her bestie starts drifting away! What if Grant does, too? Will Ivy’s sugar-sweet romance pan out? Can she maintain her façade, for him and for the world… or should she be brave and let it drop?
Publisher: Holiday House Books
