In our class, we have just finished
Drums, Girls And Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. We read this book
as a class read aloud and responded to different points in the book as a class.
Drums, Girls And Dangerous Pie is about a boy named Steven Alper who is
going through some issues in the eighth grade. Stevens baby brother Jeffery is
diagnosed with a type of cancer called leukemia and while Steven is learning to
deal with this news, he becomes a more mature person who learns to make
personal sacrifices.
Steven loves to drum. He isn’t very
popular in school and thought of as a geek but he takes drumming lessons and is
in the school city jazz band as a drummer. When he drums all of his problems go
away and he is just in the moment. A way that Steven matures through out the
book is that he is willing to give up his drum lessons so that his family will
save money to pay for Jeffry’s cancer treatment. His family is in crisis
because of all of the medical bills and you can see that Steven really loves
his family because he takes matters into his own hands and tells his drum
teacher that he can no longer pay for the lessons with his family’s money.
Another personal sacrifice that
shows that Steven is maturing is Renee Albert. Renee is the prettiest girl in
school but she always had ignored Steven because he was a nobody. It wasn’t
until the word got out in school that Steven’s brother had cancer that Renee
started to notice him. Renee wanted to come over and tutor Steven in math but unfortunately
that week Renee had been sick and Jeffery couldn’t be exposed to dieses. Steven
sacrificed his chance with Renee and told her she could not come into the
house, which cause Renee to get really upset at him. I think that this was a
huge part in the book because Steven had been obsessing over Renee for years
and to give her up just like that shows that he is maturing.
I think that the biggest sign of maturity
for Steven was when he gave up his jazz band concert for Jeffery. Steven had
been preparing for his school jazz band concert for a very long time and was
really exited about it. The purpose of the concert was to raise money for
Steven’s family to help them pay Jeffery’s medical bills. It was the big night
and Steven was really hyped to be playing while his family was cheering him on.
Halfway thorough the show, Jeffery got a fever but he forgot his special toy,
Matt Medic at home that helps him get through the treatments. Steven volunteered
to give up his super important concert to go with his little brother to the
hospital and help Jeffery to be brave. The whole book is about Steven loving
his drumming and practicing for the concert so when he gives up the concert for
his brother you can see that he has changed to be very mature.
In conclusion, since Steven gives
up a lot of things and makes a lot of personal sacrifices for Jeffery, you can
tell that he has become a very mature young adult. I don’t think that a lot of
kids in our school would be able to make personal sacrifices for their siblings
like Steven did. What I took away from this book is to not only think about
yourself and to think about the people around you and help them when they are struggling.
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