Positively

Positively by Courtney Schiinmmel tells the story of Emmy a young HIV positive girl whose mother has just died of AIDS.  The first half of the book follows Emmy trying to deal with her mothers death and her subsequent move into her father and pregnant stepmother's house.  Emmy is angry and depressed and destructive because she is so hurt, then her parents send her to a camp for girls with HIV.  Emmy is upset to have been sent away to camp but it ultimately ends up being a great help and comfort to her.

Positively does a fantastic job of creating a engrossing story around a difficult topic without turning into a cookie cutter lifetime movie like story.  When Emmy is lashing out and acting destructively the reader can see how much she is hurting.  Her journey is presented in to educate young people to the daily struggle that HIV positive kids have while also presenting the readers with engaging characters and an interesting plot.

Appropriateness:  There is nothing inappropriate at all in this novel.  Emmy is thirteen so I'd put the interest level to be middle school age with it not being inappropriate for even younger readers.  There is educational information about how HIV is transmitted as part of the plot and parts of the book are sad but not to the point where they would be traumatic.  I would of course recommend that parents use this as an opening to discuss HIV (and perhaps even other STD's) with your child.  The lexile is 670 putting it around a fourth grade level.