AT RISK

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Summary: they should be eating chocolate cake instead...
Review: ....they are bleeding from their souls. Sixth grader Amanda Farrell has just been forbidden by her parents to sleep over at a classmate's birthday party. She can attend, sure, just not stay over. Due to a tranfusion years earlier, she has contacted the HIV virus and is showing signs of AIDS. Her immediate concerns when told are if she will be able to attend school and continue gymnastics. Of course, as the book progresses, these change, as does her parents and younger brother. But this book is far more than just a literary equivalent of a TV movie of the week. The protagonist is instantly likeable, and the descriptions of the natural world enhance rather than overshadow the main storyline - something not always the case with this author's books.

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Summary: At Risk Review
Review: At Risk is an awakening look at how one virus can affect an entire community. When Amanda Farrell, an aspiring eleven-year old gymnast, is diagnosed with the AIDS virus caused by a blood transfusion during a routine operation, not only are she and her family's lives thrown into turmoil, but many other people are affected as well. This book was a truly amazing account of the emotions and experiences of an AIDS patient, her family, friends, doctors, and teachers as they deal with the illness individually and as a unit. To paint such a vibrant picture, the characters developed by the author, Alice Hoffman, had to be truly believable and readers must be able to connect with them. At Risk's characters were no disappointments. Ivan, Amanda's father, is very well developed. When he consults an AIDS hotline and goes into alternative treatment methods for Amanda when he, being generally a scientist and opposed to such things, we see how scared and desperate he is beneath the surface. Polly, Amanda's mother, is another wonderfully portrayed character. Instead of what many people would expect of someone in her situation, she is actually human and must struggle between her life and her daughter's. Amanda's doctor, Edward Reardon, is possibly the best-developed character in the entire novel. We see how he deals with Amanda, a lifelong patient, being ill with a terminal disease affect him at a professional level as well as a personal level. He is forced to sacrifice time with his own family for time with another, and that effect is a sad one we might not often realize. Lastly, Amanda herself was a very honest, true character. Despite generalizations by society that an AIDS patient may only think about her illness, it is made clear that regardless of her health, she just wants to be an eleven-year-old girl. However, one might feel slightly let down by the lack of negative viewpoints. Since At Risk dealt heavily with issues of fear and opposition of Amanda and her family's participation in school, gymnastics, and routine tasks, it may have been more understood by the reader if they could read the feelings and views of such a character. All viewpoints given (and there certainly were quite a few) gave a somewhat hopeful and supportive approach to Amanda's illness. Aside from this, Alice Hoffman's approach to showing how much one little girl means to so many people is a very solid, strong, and effective one. Also, the author did a fabulous job of making the reader feel like they really knew Amanda Farrell's family. Little details, bold personalities, distinct dialogue for each person, and frank behavioral descriptions of characters give a very directed, unique feel to the family life. These elements also make it much easier to relate to, which is very important to reader comprehension when writing about a topic that most of the audience has probably not have ever had any experience dealing with and therefore do not know how those involved would act in such a situation. The variety of conflict in the novel is very thorough. Person versus society conflict is addressed when many parents do not want Amanda or her brother to associate with their children out of fear and ignorance. Aside from that, Amanda is excluded from some gymnastics events, and very hard thing for her to deal with because this is her passion. All of the Farrells face a challenge against the community to show them that the only reason for fear is ignorance. Charlie and his best friend, Sevrin are not allowed to play together at the demand of Sevrin's mother, demonstrating the most severe demonstration of person versus person conflict. Polly shows how people can have conflicts with themselves when she is forced to deal with her attractive and need for Ed Reardon and her need to be a good mother and wife at the same time. Lastly, all of the Farrells have a conflict with nature in their wonder at why Amanda's fate was AIDS. If a reader is looking for a book strictly about the story of an AIDS patient and personal, dramatic details on every page, At Risk is not for them. However, if a reader is in pursuit of an account of an AIDS patient that seems more realistic and human, a novel like this will probably be highly satisfying. This book is shocking and painfully realistic. If Alice Hoffman gives one message throughout At Risk, it is that AIDS does not only affect one's health, but also their entire mental, physical, and emotional state of well being.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: At Risk is an excellent book. However it is a sad but touching story. It shows what can happen to a loving family when they are faced with such a life threatening illness such as AIDS. It tells how the family has to work together to keep things as normal as possible, and how sometimes they wait until they are behind closed doors to break down so no one will how bad things really are. At the same time it has driven a wedge between Ivan and Polly and sometimes makes them feel like they are going threw this alone. This has also made them turn in the wrong directions looking for comfort instead of turning to each other. When they learned of the situation they tried not to let it consume their whole lives and make their son Charlie feel left out but sometimes that was hard to do.
Ivan, Polly, and even Charlie have a very difficult time watching Amanda go threw all of the changes and different stages of AIDS. At one time she was full of energy and very involved with gymnastics would not miss a day of practice. But she slowly is loosing her energy some days she has enough to go to practice and others she doesn't even have enough to get out of bed.
At Risk shows you how a community can react when they are presented with something they are unfamiliar and uneducated about. It tells how one of Polly's closest friends and co-workers won't even let their children play together anymore because she is in fear her son will catch it from Amanda's brother. Then you have a lady that isn't really even a friend to Polly that goes to visit Amanda and they become really good friends. It shows both people with negative attitudes and people with positive attitudes.
This was the second book I have read by Alice Hoffman and I plan to read more. Her stories are very down to earth. They keep your interest so you want to read more.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: At Risk is an excellent book. However it is a sad but touching story. It shows what can happen to a loving family when they are faced with such a life threatening illness such as AIDS. It tells how the family has to work together to keep things as normal as possible, and how sometimes they wait until they are behind closed doors to break down so no one will how bad things really are. At the same time it has driven a wedge between Ivan and Polly and sometimes makes them feel like they are going threw this alone. This has also made them turn in the wrong directions looking for comfort instead of turning to each other. When they learned of the situation they tried not to let it consume their whole lives and make their son Charlie feel left out but sometimes that was hard to do.
Ivan, Polly, and even Charlie have a very difficult time watching Amanda go threw all of the changes and different stages of AIDS. At one time she was full of energy and very involved with gymnastics would not miss a day of practice. But she slowly is loosing her energy some days she has enough to go to practice and others she doesn't even have enough to get out of bed.
At Risk shows you how a community can react when they are presented with something they are unfamiliar and uneducated about. It tells how one of Polly's closest friends and co-workers won't even let their children play together anymore because she is in fear her son will catch it from Amanda's brother. Then you have a lady that isn't really even a friend to Polly that goes to visit Amanda and they become really good friends. It shows both people with negative attitudes and people with positive attitudes.
This was the second book I have read by Alice Hoffman and I plan to read more. Her stories are very down to earth. They keep your interest so you want to read more.

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Summary: Poignant, moving story . . .
Review: At Risk is the fourth book I have read by Alice Hoffman. This book, along with Practical Magic, are my two favorite books by this aurthor thus far.

At Risk is a sad, yet inspirational story about an eleven-year-old girl named Amada, who comes down with the AIDS virus after getting a blood transfusion a few years before.

This touching story moves you through this little girl's life, and what she has to go through. She bravely continues to go to school, compete as a gymnist, and try to keep her frienships going. She does this all in between bouts of illnesses and low points.

This is also a story about her family: her father, Ivan; her mother, Polly; her brother, Charlie; as well as her grandparents, who come to visit to lend the family a helping hand.

This is also a story about a community and how they deal with this little girl and her family. This story shows, very realistically, how hysteria can sweep through a school, and how ignorance and fear can tear through a neighborhood.

This book was published in 1988, making it over a decade old, and written around the time AIDS was still a fairly new disease. Nonetheless, while I believe this world is less ignorant regarding AIDS, the fear still sweeps corners of the globe. So, even though we're approaching a new millennium, this story is still an important one to be told.

The story is there, and the characters are there, making this one of Ms. Hoffman's best.

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Summary: An extraordinary book... beautifully written by Hoffman!
Review: At Risk was an amazing book that was a true attention grabber. It held my interest throughout the whole story. I loved the way in which Alice Hoffman portrayed all of the characters, including Amanda, Charlie, Polly, and Ivan Farrell. I felt as if I knew the characters and their exact thoughts and beliefs. It was a very controversial book and discussed many issures. I can imagine how many people around the world can relate their lives to this book. I must be so hard to experience the tragedy of losing a family memeber to AIDS. All the Farrell family needed was some support from the people in their town. Unfortunately, many people were not very understanding and sympathetic, and so the Farrell family had to deal with this dilemma on their own. I was happy to find out that many people came to their senses and were willing to help out the Farrell family at the end of the story. On the other hand, I was dissappointed in the ending of this story. It left you hanging, and you did not know what to believe and how the story would end. However, I enjoyed the book tremendously and I look forward to reading more novels by the magical author, Alice Hoffman.

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Summary: At Risk
Review: At Risk, by Alice Hoffman

For my book review I chose to write about the book At Risk, by Alice Hoffman. I read this book my sophomore year in high school. At first, I had the attitude of who wants to read a book about aids but after a few chapters I was hooked on it. I even read more of the book than I was supposed to because I wanted to know what was going to happen so badly. This is the one and only book that I have ever read more than I was supposed to for homework.
This book is about a young eleven-year-old named Amanda Farrell who has gotten the aids virus through a blood transfusion. During the short time she was here after getting the virus things went haywire, and her families lives were turned upside-down. Not only did it affect her family, but it also affected the whole community.
The author, Alice Hoffman did a great job of making the characters significant in the story. Each character has been affected, each differently, from the AIDS virus that Amanda had gotten. Ivan, Amanda's father, is a very well developed character. When he consults an AIDS hotline and goes into alternative treatment methods for Amanda we see how scared and desperate he is beneath the surface. It is very hard for him because he is a scientist and does not believe that any of these alternate treatments are going to be beneficial for Amanda. Polly, Amanda's mother, is another significant character in the book. Instead of what many people would expect of someone in her situation, she is actually human and must struggle between her life and her daughter's. Amanda's doctor, Edward Reardon, is probably the most developed character in the entire book. We see how he deals with Amanda, a lifelong patient, being ill with a terminal disease affects him at a professional level as well as a personal level. He is forced to sacrifice time with his own family for time with Amanda and her family.
This tragic event made it very hard on Amanda. Not only did she have to stop gymnastics, the sport she loved, but she as unable to attend her school because parents were complaining and threatening to send their children to private school if they did not do something. Although this novel takes place in the 80's, I still think that it's very wrong to separate a child with such a disease when they already have to worry about so much. The last thing someone with aids would want is to be separated from everyone else. All Amanda ever wanted to be normal. This disease also affected her younger brother Charlie. His best friend's parents no longer let their son hang out with Charlie. So Charlie was basically the loner of the family but he was very strong and caring for Amanda more then anyone.
This book was a very good story and a very sad story as well. It ends with the sense of you don't really realize what you have until its gone. Also many maturing points occur in the novel for Amanda at such a young age where you could see her loss of innocence. If your looking to read a good but sad story that will keep you wanted to read more then I would definitely recommend reading At Risk by Alice Hoffman.


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Summary: Amenda, Polly,Ivan,Charlie,Claire,Al are BREAKING UP!
Review: his is a really cool book! Polly had a perfect life. but when her daughter was dignosed with AIDS. She found out that life really stinks sometime.

Most people in the town of Morrow hated Polly and his family when they knew that Amenda had had AIDS. They tried to get away from her and despise her family. Two people I found really distasteful was Betsy and Linda the principal.

Yet, Ed Rearden was the one who held the family together, he worked day and night with Amenda and size=1>
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Rating:
Summary: Amenda, Polly,Ivan,Charlie,Claire,Al are BREAKING UP!
Review: his is a really cool book! Polly had a perfect life. but when her daughter was dignosed with AIDS. She found out that life really stinks sometime.

Most people in the town of Morrow hated Polly and his family when they knew that Amenda had had AIDS. They tried to get away from her and despise her family. Two people I found really distasteful was Betsy and Linda the principal.

Yet, Ed Rearden was the one who held the family together, he worked day and night with Amenda and size=1>
<i~{`F

Rating:
Summary: I didn't heed the warnings....
Review: I didn't heed the warnings from friends who had read this book and am glad I didn't. They warned me how sad it was. And they warned me how depressing it was. What they didn't say was how simply beautiful it was. Hoffman has so many different aspects of this book going at once--the number of characters and their points of view--it's amazing the way she keeps it simple. Yet nothing in this book is "surface"--it is all deep and gut-wrenching. When an author can lay out this many characters and explain how they feel--and why--with such precision and beauty, I know I want to read more of the author. Alice Hoffman is a new favorite of mine.