Friends for a Season: Red Velvet

Quinn Miller has a loving family, great friends, and a strong religious foundation. The only cloud over her life is her mothers breast cancer. When previous treatments fail to prevent her mothers cancer from coming back, they decide to try one more treatment. The entire Miller family moves into Anderson House in Seattle, where cancer patients and their families stay. Its hard for Quinn to leave behind her friends, school and familiar environment to live in what she calls Planet Cancer. But she is willing to do whatever it takes to give her mom the chance to be healthy again.

At Anderson House, Quinn meets Annie, a girl who is also an eighth-grader and whose mom also has cancer. The two girls bond quickly and are soon inseparable.

One day, Quinn discovers her mothers old diaries from when she was a teen. Her mom loves keeping lists, just like Quinn, and her mother shows her a list of things she hopes she can do before she dies. Quinn knows that her mother does not have that much time left, but she wants to help her mom accomplish all of the items on her list. At the same time, she worries that if her mother finishes everything on her list, it will be like Quinn is giving her mom permission to die.

With the help of her newfound friend Annie, as well as her family and her friends at home, Quinn sets out to make sure that her mothers last days will be full of happiness.

This is a great story for any teens or preteens that might be dealing with the sickness of a friend or family member. Quinn has so much faith and love for her mother, and yet she is still able to come to terms with the harsh truth of cancer. Sandra Byrd incorporates Quinns faith in God as a strong foundation in her life as she struggles to deal with her mothers cancer. I like how religion plays a large part in the plot, but is never overbearing. While I could not personally relate to the situations that Quinn found herself in, I thoroughly admire the courage that Quinn exhibits when she faces tough choices. Byrd does well in making Quinn and her family realistic characters in an all too common circumstance.