Chronically Dolores
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Winner of The Schneider Family Book Award, for excellence in portraying the disability experience!
Maya Van Wagenen, bestselling author of Popular, tells Dolores’s story with humor, heartache, and an occasional bit of telenovela flair.
“A striking fiction debut.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An insightful, funny, and realistic coming-of-age story.” —Kirkus
Dolores Mendoza is not thriving. She was recently diagnosed with a chronic bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. The painful disease isn’t life-threatening, but it is threatening to ruin her life.
Just when things seem hopeless, Dolores meets someone poised to change her fate. Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones is glamorous, autistic, and homeschooled against her will by her overprotective mother. After a rocky start, the girls form a tentative partnership. Beautiful, talented Terpsichore will help Dolores win back her ex–best friend, Shae. And Dolores will convince Terpsichore’s mom that her daughter has the social skills to survive public school. It seems like a foolproof plan, but Dolores isn’t always a reliable narrator, and her choices may put her in danger of committing an unforgivable betrayal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Van Wagenen (Popular)draws on her experiences managing interstitial cystitis—a chronic bladder condition, as addressed in an author's note—in her striking fiction debut. Fourteen-year-old Dolores Mendoza, who's constantly navigating chronic pain due to her IC, is embarrassed when her condition results in a bladder-related incident at school. Suddenly ignored by her best friend and dealing with increasing tension at home surrounding her father's financial irresponsibility, Dolores feels isolated. Hoping to escape reality, she imagines her life as a telenovela; commiserates with her gay older brother Matteo, who's facing romantic hurdles; and periodically confides in a witty local priest despite her mother's disapproval of religion. Then Dolores meets wise and astute autistic teen Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones, who rails against her own mother's overprotective nature. Buoyant banter and Dolores's interstitial journal entries in which she rates bathroom environments add levity to tense moments depicting Dolores's illness and her and Terpsichore's yearning for independence. Compassionate prose conveys the protagonists' experiences with care and thoughtful, complex characterizations approachably highlight life's ambiguity. Characters are racially diverse. Ages 12–up.
