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Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: I recently reread Saint Vitus' Dance and it was as exquisite as the first time. No one writes like Ms. Rublacaba. The prose is beautiful and the portrayals of a stricken family are sensitive. Excellent!
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading
Review: Perhaps there is a little redeeming value in this book since it purports to discuss the feelings of a child who discovers her mother has an incurable disease that the child may have inherited. The story, however, is not believable. Because of the sudden onset of the disease and her mother's strange behaviors, Melanie feels the whole town is laughing at her family. In a small town where all kinds of eccentricities are chalked up to "cabin fever" this is hard to believe. Maybe the writer intended to show that Melanie just imagined this, but we are never quite sure whether this is Melanie's imagination or the meanness of her neighbors. Her mother is apparently a fully functioning member of society; a fine mother, wife of one of the leading citizens and an excellent homemaker, until one day boom!, she has Huntington's with full blown dementia. This is a very misleading picture of Huntington's Disease. The sudden onset and quick death depicted in the book are not a true picture of the progress of the disease. A person with Huntington's would probably have shown personality changes much earlier than the noticeable onset of the classic symptoms of chorea. The average life expectancy after onset of these symtoms is closer to 15 years, not a few months. Melanie does not arouse much sympathy in the reader. Her behavior is erratic and perplexing. I do not know of any young person I would give this book to, either as an explanation of Huntington's or as a guide on how to confront hard facts about one's family and oneself. The book also gives the mistaken impression that St. Vitus' dance is Huntington's disease. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, St. Vitus dance is a "nervous disorder occurring chiefly in childhood or during pregnancy, closely associated with rheumatic fever, and characterized by rapid, jerky, involuntary movements of the body." It is called Sydenham's chorea after Thomas Sydenham an English physician who lived in the 17th century. The name was probably also used to describe a variety of disorders. Huntington's is a devasting, incurable disease. Those interested in learning more about the disease will not find much useful information in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading
Review: Perhaps there is a little redeeming value in this book since it purports to discuss the feelings of a child who discovers her mother has an incurable disease that the child may have inherited. The story, however, is not believable. Because of the sudden onset of the disease and her mother's strange behaviors, Melanie feels the whole town is laughing at her family. In a small town where all kinds of eccentricities are chalked up to "cabin fever" this is hard to believe. Maybe the writer intended to show that Melanie just imagined this, but we are never quite sure whether this is Melanie's imagination or the meanness of her neighbors. Her mother is apparently a fully functioning member of society; a fine mother, wife of one of the leading citizens and an excellent homemaker, until one day boom!, she has Huntington's with full blown dementia. This is a very misleading picture of Huntington's Disease. The sudden onset and quick death depicted in the book are not a true picture of the progress of the disease. A person with Huntington's would probably have shown personality changes much earlier than the noticeable onset of the classic symptoms of chorea. The average life expectancy after onset of these symtoms is closer to 15 years, not a few months. Melanie does not arouse much sympathy in the reader. Her behavior is erratic and perplexing. I do not know of any young person I would give this book to, either as an explanation of Huntington's or as a guide on how to confront hard facts about one's family and oneself. The book also gives the mistaken impression that St. Vitus' dance is Huntington's disease. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, St. Vitus dance is a "nervous disorder occurring chiefly in childhood or during pregnancy, closely associated with rheumatic fever, and characterized by rapid, jerky, involuntary movements of the body." It is called Sydenham's chorea after Thomas Sydenham an English physician who lived in the 17th century. The name was probably also used to describe a variety of disorders. Huntington's is a devasting, incurable disease. Those interested in learning more about the disease will not find much useful information in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A moving portrait...
Review: This beautifully written novel effectively introduces readers to a disease that is both devastating and widely misunderstood. Young Melanie, with her eloquent and honest voice, draws readers in by sharing what she sees and feels as she witnesses her mother's descent into Huntington's Chorea.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This is a very touching book that I will definitely read again and that I would recommend others my age read. It helped me understand how it would be to have a Mom with an incurable illness and how scary it would be. It's a sad book that left me thinking deeply about how I would feel if the same thing happened to me. I am 12 years old.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books.
Review: This is a very touching book that I will definitely read again and that I would recommend others my age read. It helped me understand how it would be to have a Mom with an incurable illness and how scary it would be. It's a sad book that left me thinking deeply about how I would feel if the same thing happened to me. I am 12 years old.
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