Essay on "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

Jordan Sonnenblick's ,"Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie", tells the story of an 8th grader named Steven Alper facing the average challenges of an average boy in middle school. Life is liveable until he learns about his 5-year-old brother, Jeffrey's, cancer. Knowing that he has to cope with the fact that Jeffrey could possibly die is too much to deal with, especially with the world of middle school dragging him down, along with his own insecurities, while he hopelessly tries to graduate from 8th grade. Though, by the end of the book, we see how much Steven has grown and matured through the personal sacrifices he made over the course of the story.

Because of his cancer, Jeffrey lost his whole head of hair. Sensing Jeffrey's new-found self-conciousness because of this, Steven shaved his head, all in support for his brother. This event showed how Syeven was becoming a more caring person, especially for Jeffrey. Also, Steven matured even more because, when he went to school, he didn't care about anyone's reactions to his new head, which meant that he was losing his self-conciousness. Instead, he only cared about whether Jeffrey still felt alone and unhappy. All of this showed how Steven had greatly matured, because, in the beginning, he wouldn't ever have thought about doing anything at all for this "annoying little brother" of his.

Try to imagine having to quit something you absolutely adore. That's what Steven had to go through when he figured out that his family's money was going down the drain he wanted the best for his brother's sickness, so he thought that one way to help with that was to quit his drum lessons, which were costing a lot of money for his family. It was thrilling that his teacher was willing to keep teaching him, even without the money, Steven being the teacher's "best student". Still, when Steven gave up his passion for his family's sake, it showed a lot of growth in his attitude.

Lastly, Steven showed his maturity greatly at his school's concert. He was going to have a drum solo, and be the star of the show, but he left it all-just because Jeffrey was getting a fever. Steven knew how bad Jeffrey's illness could get, and it was then that he remembered what Samantha, a patient from Jeffrey's hospital, had told him. She said that Steven had to be there for Jeffrey, that he had to stay by his side no matter what, because her own sister never came to visit her, even when she died. So, when Steven walked away from his big concert, it showed how much he cared for his brother, and how much he matured since the beginning of the book.

In the start of the story, Steven Alper was a selfish, self-concious 8th grade boy who couldn't care less about what happened to his 5-year-old brother, Jeffrey. But, in the end of the story, Steven had turned into a caring and mature person, who would do anything to help Jeffrey conquer his disease, even when the troubling events of 8th grade brought him down.