Mourning Song

June 1, 1993
Gr 6-8-Dani's older sister has an inoperable brain tumor. When the doctor gives Cassie only a few weeks to live, Dani and her mother argue about the right way to care for her, and they don't tell her that she is fatally ill. Then Cassie receives a check for $100,000 from an anonymous donor, and Dani makes up her mind that her sister will get her last wish, to see the ocean. Without permission, the sisters and Dani's friend Austin drive to the Florida coast. Dani calls her mother when she learns that Cassie knows the truth about her condition. In the last pages, readers see Dani and her mother continuing their lives without Cassie, both with budding love interests, and watching the loggerhead turtles move towards the ocean in an affirmation of life. The plot is trite and overly sentimental, with obvious twists and a predictable ending. The characters are stock types, and never developed fully.- Tina Smith Entwistle, Oakley Park Elementary School, MI