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"I write the kind of books I write because I want to help kids understand that nobody gets to pick what life dishes out to them. What you do get to choose is how you respond to what life gives you. No matter what happens, life is a gift. And always worth living." —Lurlene McDaniel

Everyone loves a good cry, and no one delivers heartwrenching stories better than Lurlene McDaniel.

Lurlene McDaniel began writing about young adults when her son Sean was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 3. His illness changed the lives of everyone in her family forever. “I saw what life was like for someone who was chronically ill, and I experienced how it affected the dynamics of the family,” says McDaniel. She says she found that writing about the trauma and its effects was therapeutic. She has written over 40 novels about kids who face life-threatening illnesses. To find out more about her, visit her websites:

My path was pure blessing, luck, right place-right time. I wrote ad/pr copy on the side and one day met a woman at a photo shoot and we struck up a conversation. When she discovered I was a writer, she invited me to try my hand at a children's book because her father owned a publishing company---School Book Fairs (now Darby Press). They bought 23 books from me before I moved on to Bantam/Random House.

Letters from my readers usually captivate me with their stories of overcoming great odds and struggles to make the best out of what life hands them.

Random House Children's Books | December 28, 2004 | Reinforced Library Binding It's the summer after sophomore year and Raina has convinced her best friends since the sixth grade, Kathleen and Holly, to spend their summer as "pink angels" in Parker-Sloan General Hospital's summer volunteer program. Kathleen is reluctant to

Author Lurlene McDaniel has written so many books, I’ve lost count. She’s one of those authors whose works you can only quantify as “over (however many) books.” Her official biography says over 40, to which I say, well over 40. I haven’t read her recent releases, but I think I pretty much exhausted her backlist back when I was in middle school. One thing that always struck me when reading her novels was how strong her characters were, or became throughout the (usually heartbreaking) course of the book. It was her work that made me look at medicine as a possible career path, and it was her work that kept me reading compulsively after I outgrew BSC.

Unique, beautifully grotesque, and cataclysmic. This book takes some very interesting turns, pitching the reader between being grossed out and engrossed. The subject alone- teacher sleeping with student- is one that makes the majority of people cringe and turn their nose up in disgust. But McDaniel writes Ryan in such a way that immediate discredit doesn't exist, even during his first time in bed with this teacher.

This book will make you think. Ryan's homelife isn't ideal- a mother who died when he was 2 and a father who loves him but travels often for work, leaving him alone the majority of the time- but by the end of the book, I found myself wondering how much, in this scenario, that homelife really mattered. How drastically different would Ryan's decisions have been if he had two loving parents who were there? Granted, sneaking around would have been more difficult but even with his father being gone, it didn't go unnoticed. I think this is a very prime example of a teen knowing what he wants and going for it, all legalities aside. Ryan is a cocky yet sweet guy but becomes his own sort of obsessive, falling quickly for a women double his age. He falls into the trap she sets easily, going through the gauntlet of emotions from lust and love to jealousy and betrayal. He puts Lori first for a long while, at least until her unsettling mental state begins to become apparent. It seems like Ryan gains some insight and maybe even grows a pair, turning back towards his schoolwork and the friends he ditched for her, but still masterfully played both sides.

ri is an incredibly unique character and despite being the sexual predator, she was written in a brilliant way to thrust sympathy and understanding towards her. She could easily have been the victim in this case which added an entirely new element, taking the story as a whole to a different level. This, coupled with Ryan's home life and several other twists- particularly towards the end- all tie together to make this book shocking and memorable. She uses her beauty and body to get what she wants, tossing the reader back and forth between appreciating her for it and despising her.