When one day his eyelid swells up and won’t go down, Ross can kiss being normal goodbye. Because it turns out he has cancer in
his eye, or right behind his eye and in order to keep his eye, he will have to go through a lot of radiation treatments. He has two best friends, Abby and Issac. Abby is a solid friend and sticks by him, but Issac basically ghosts him. And trying to fit in, in middle school is hard enough, but when you have to do strange things to keep your eye, it is hard to make new friends.
To make things even worse, someone is making some really mean cartoons that are circulating around the school – ones that are about Ross and he has no idea who is doing them. Sometimes his one bright spot is actually going to his radiation treatments, where one of the technicians is super cool and starts Ross down a path that he never saw for himself.
Wink by Rob Harrell is both humorous and serious by turns. Ross has to learn to navigate his treatments, his diagnosis, his family and friends as well as school. It is a lot for any 7th grader! Especially when all he thinks he wants is to be normal, almost to the point of being invisible.
Recommended for grades 6 and up.
Books in the Middle: Reading for Middle School 