SuitabookWink
Rob Harrell
- Reading
- Read alongside the child if medical treatment, hurtful memes or friendship difficulties may feel close to home.
- Themes
- Living with visible illness: Ross undergoes treatment for a rare eye cancer while coping with a permanently closed eye, changed appearance and concern about being defined by illness. Illness is shown through physical effects and social consequences, but Ross is also presented as angry, creative and engaged in ordinary adolescent concerns.
- Anger, friendship and online cruelty: Ross is angry about anonymous memes and about Isaac withdrawing when Ross needs friendship. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Creative expression: Ross channels his feelings into learning guitar and hopes to perform at the school's talent show; comic material and humour accompany the story. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Give particular thought to how the reader may respond to cancer treatment, impaired vision, hair loss, goopy ointment, hurtful memes, anger and a friendship breakdown. The ending and longer-term outcomes remain unclear.