Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel

Lurlene McDaniel’s realistic stories of teens facing life-altering situations are almost always a sure bet for teen girls. They are filled with drama, friendship, and young love. This is why I was surprised when I was told that several newly purchased Lurlene McDaniel titles could not even be put out on the shelves of our middle school library because of inappropriate content.

Breathless is not the story of young love as much as it is a story of a young man who, after fighting bone cancer for close to two years, makes plans to choose how and when he dies rather than go through the series of heroic medical measures his parents insist he should want because “scientific miracles come along every single day.” The story is realistically told through four very different voices. First, is Travis, a champion diver, whose bone snaps one day as he’s making a dare devil dive off a mountain cliff and eventually has to have his leg amputated, as well as face chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The second voice is Cooper, Travis’ best friend since the third grade, who is fatherless and lives with an inattentive alcoholic mother. We also hear the perspective of Darla, who is Travis’ girlfriend. Darla is considered an “easy” girl at school and lives with a verbally abusive father at home. Yet, Darla has found a boyfriend who respects and cares for the real person within her in Travis. Finally, we hear this story through the voice of Emily, Travis’ younger sister, who is so loyal, that when he was grounded to his room when younger, she sat outside his bedroom door, coloring pictures for two days. Each one of these teens grapples throughout the story with their own life situations, as well as Travis’ controversial decision to end his own life. In the end, a stroke puts Travis in the hospital and stops his own plans for choosing how to die…or does it?

In regards to this book not being placed on our middle school library shelves? There is one scene where Travis and his girlfriend are alone in his room and she lifts her shirt over her head and he asks her “are you sure?” and she kisses him and says, “way sure.” I do not think this book is inappropriate for the eighth grade girls in our school.