Green, J. (2014). The fault in our stars. New York, NY: Penguin Young Readers.

This one is a quick one.  Girl  (Hazel) gets sick. Girl meets boy (Augustus) who is in remission.  Hazel and Augustus have a sick friend (Isaac) who is sacrificing his eye in order to be cancer free.  Augustus gives up his “wish” trip for Hazel to go to Amsterdam to meet the author (Peter Van Houten) whom she idolizes and who ultimately dramatically disappoints her.   Hazel and August admit they are in love with each other and consummate their relationship and in the end, Hazel lives while August dies.  At the funeral Hazel reads the eulogy to meet the needs of Augustus’ parents who are now the ones struggling.  Van Houten is present at the funeral and Hazel discovers he has a daughter who passed away.  Even thought she still doesn’t like him, she finds a measure of understanding.

The target audience is grades 9 – 12.  The lexile level is 850.  There is some vocabulary that students may need help with.  It addresses issues such as teenage sex, illness and early death.  Some of the lesson suggestions include Socratic Seminar discussions.  Another way this can be used as a lead in to introducing writing eulogy.  This might also work as an interactive journal text.  I enjoyed the novel and I have also seen the movie.  I try o remind my students not to judge a book by its movie.  I do find that my students are more likely to read a novel if a movie is attached to it.  I love being able to do compare and contrast with novels and movies.