Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie is a book aimed at children and young teenagers, and was the debut novel from author Jordan Sonnenblick[1] originally published by DayBlue Insights [2] and later by Scholastic. Publishers Weekly described it as "insightful".
Sonnenblick, an English teacher and former student of author Frank McCourtwas inspired to write the novel by the real-life story of one of his own students. My temporary good cheer lasted until I got on the bus. Renee Albert caught my eye well, OK, she always catches my eye and spoke.
How's the brain injury? Which brought me back to reality really, really fast. The protagonist of the book is Steven Alper, a year-old boy kända alper in New Jersey. The Alper kända alper consists of Dad, an accountant; Mom, an English teacher; Steven, an enthusiastic and talented drummer who is also a self-described "skinny geek;" and Jeffrey, eight years younger, whom Steven describes as cute, adoring of his big brother, and apt to blurt out really embarrassing remarks about Steven in public.
When Jeffrey has a horrific nose bleed and goes to the emergency roomthe Alpers are shocked to discover that he has leukemia. Alper soon has to quit her job as a teacher while Mr. Alper shuts down, interacting minimally with Steven even when Mrs.
Alper and Jeffrey are away in Philadelphia for Jeffrey's chemotherapy treatments. Steven becomes very shelled in, but no one can really tell, except for a piano-prodigy classmate, Annette Watson, who persistently tries to find out what is the matter.
Steven does not tell her or anyone else at school. He stops doing his homework, and eventually his guidance counselor and teachers push him to open up about what is going on. His guidance counselor is a major help throughout the story. She advises him, "Instead of agonizing about the things you can't change, why don't you try working on the things you can change?
At one point, Steven's mom becomes sick, so Steven and his father have to take Jeffrey to his treatment. There Steven meets Samantha, a girl with leukemia. Steven has his practice pad with him and lends her his drumsticks. She tells him how sad she is that her older sister has distanced herself from Samantha since her illness, and advises Steven to stay engaged in Jeffrey's life.
Steven and Annette play in the All-City band and Steven is to perform the big drum solo for the spring jazz concert. One night at band practice, the high-schoolers learn they have to do community service, which will force them to quit the band.
Annette thinks of a way to bring the service into the band by using the spring concert as a benefit concert to help the Alpers pay their medical bills, and she and Renee work hard to make this a success. The night of the concert the band members shave their heads in solidarity with Jeffrey.
Right before Steven's big solo that night, Jeffrey gets a fever and has to go back to the hospital. Taking Samantha's advice, Steven goes with him instead of staying to play his drum solo.