rabck from dvg; although the daughter has AIDS from a blood transfusion, it's really a book about a family imploding when a child is terminally ill ( )

Ok, its novel about a 11 year old girl with AIDS so be prepared to have your heart wrenched out of your chest. ( )

I found this at a book sale years ago, now getting around to it. It's a bit dated now... as AIDS must have been much more terrifying when this book was published in 1988. Happily science has now found treatments for AIDS. Now there are medications -- not to downplay the disease AT ALL. Yay science! In the book, a family is dealing with their eleven year old daughter that has been diagnosed with AIDS. So it's a picture of what was happening with the disease in 1988. Hoffman handles the narrative well with realism for the time. It's a quick read. ( )

medicine has come a long way since the 1980s; unfortunately, people haven't. ( )

In a lovely old house near the coast of Massachusetts, the Farrells go through the routines of a typical August morning. Eight-year-old Charlie, a junior biologist and dinosaur expert, tries to collect one of his insect specimens. His sister, Amanda, a talented gymnast who at eleven years old is already saving her money to try out for the Olympics, prepares for her last meet of the summer. Ivan, their absent-minded father, is involved with his work as an astronomer. Out in the garden, his wife, Polly, wonders how she can trick her children into eating more zucchini.

They are a family as unique and ordinary as any other, but their world will soon be shattered when Amanda is diagnosed with the disease that has been making headlines lately: AIDS. The new and still-mysterious ailment scares them—and their friends and neighbors as well. In an instant, everything that gave their lives meaning is ripped away, and the intimacy that once came so naturally vanishes. Too overcome with grief to turn to each other, Ivan and Polly seek solace elsewhere. Charlie is abandoned by his best friend and, for long stretches at a time, forgotten by his parents. Amanda, who holds on to her dreams so tightly, must somehow find a way to let go.

Torn apart by the prospect of their loss, Polly, Ivan, and Charlie must find the courage to come back together again—for Amanda’s sake and for their own. At Risk is an exquisite book about true sorrow and even truer devotion.