No Matter the Distance

December 1, 2022
A girl with cystic fibrosis forms a special bond with a dolphin. Eleven-year-old Penny Rooney is thrilled when her teacher announces a poetry slam for sixth graders. However, the theme proves daunting: What does she know about herself? She knows she's more than her CF, with its nebulizer treatments, digestive enzymes, and periodic hospitalizations. But sometimes it feels like she knows more about members of her close-knit family than herself and that she and best friend Cricket are practically the same person. When Cricket reveals she's moving from North Carolina to Virginia, Penny can't imagine who she'll be without her. Her sadness eases when an ill dolphin unexpectedly swims into her backyard creek. To Penny's amazement, she and the dolphin, whom she names Rose, can communicate telepathically. But Rose will soon have to rejoin her pod. How can Penny say goodbye to two best friends? In introspective free verse, Penny poignantly navigates an array of tough emotions, including the loneliness of being unable to meet peers with CF in person due to infection risks, the guilt of needing her family's attention, and--notably--the pressure to repress her fear and anger because, as her doctors remind her, things could be worse. Readers navigating chronic illness will particularly appreciate Penny's cathartic, empowering self-discovery. An author's note explains that Baldwin herself has CF. The Rooneys read White by default. A thought-provoking take on illness, identity, and long-distance friendship. (Verse novel. 8-12)

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February 1, 2023

Gr 3-7-Sixth grader Penny has cystic fibrosis, but she's not a tragic figure. She's sick, but a full person. This novel-in-verse follows a framing device of Penny's poetry slam identity assignment, drawn out against her best friend moving, a CF health dip, and best of all, a dolphin floundering in her backyard creek. The poetry angle is slight-the words are straightforward, without many poetic elements-but it does make this story fast-paced. Baldwin notes that she has read books about characters with cystic fibrosis, but never written by someone who had the diagnosis. To her they felt cheap, mawkish. She changes that with this novel, and the difference in hearing it from her mouth is palpable. Cystic fibrosis is a plot point but not the plot point. This quick read also manages to show terrific character growth. Penny accepts the full spectrum of emotion. She realizes she can be lucky and angry, terrified and brave simultaneously. Main characters are cued as white. VERDICT This book will draw upper elementary and lower middle grade students in with the cute animal relationship but will keep them engaged with the emotionally complex, nuanced depiction of a young girl with cystic fibrosis.-Cat McCarrey

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 27, 2023
Baldwin (The Stars of Whistling Ridge) pulls from her own experience with cystic fibrosis, as outlined in an author’s note, to construct an insightful telling of a tween living with CF via affecting free-verse poems. Eleven-year-old Penny Rooney can’t believe her eyes when she spots a dolphin in her North Carolina backyard creek. But after Penny learns her best friend Cricket is moving away and she experiences her worst CF flare in years, her passive interest in the visiting dolphin, which she names Rose, develops into an emotional, psychic bond, through which she and the dolphin share mental images of their experiences. When experts from the nearby Duke University marine biology station come to investigate the dolphin’s appearance, they reveal that Rose is ill and must either return to the ocean or risk further health complications. As Penny wrestles with devastating farewells to both Cricket and Rose, she struggles with worsening flare-ups. Penny’s challenges with loneliness and letting go while managing CF are sincerely detailed, potently centering specific accounts of the daily realities of a girl living with a chronic illness, and how those experiences shape the world around her. Characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown.

Starred review from February 15, 2023
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* People are always telling Penny how lucky she is, and usually she agrees. She's got a great family, an awesome best friend in Cricket, and a house on a creek that's perfect for swimming. While Penny lives with cystic fibrosis, she leads a pretty regular life, even if she does need to take extra medicines and do her breathing treatments. But right now, it's sixth-grade spring break, she's healthy, she's excited to enter the sixth-grade poetry contest, and she has an amazing secret: there's a dolphin hanging around their dock. Then everything changes. Cricket's family is moving away, Penny can't get her poem started, it turns out that Rose, as Penny has named the dolphin, may have swum this far inland because she's sick, and Penny's not feeling all that great, either. This first-person novel in verse allows Penny to explain about cystic fibrosis and how she feels about having it, while also helping readers understand the special connections Penny feels with both Cricket and Rose. All this positive empathy is wrapped around a fast-paced story with fully developed characters. The realistic but happy ending proves that some friendships are meant to last, no matter the distance.

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