Juniper Jade's parents are hippies. They didn’t attend the first Woodstock, but they were there for the second one. The Jade family lives an all-organic homeschool lifestyle that means no plastics, no cell phones, and no vaccines. It isn’t exactly normal, but it’s the only thing Juniper has ever known. She doesn’t agree with her parents on everything, but she knows that to be in this family, you've got to stick to the rules. That is, until the unthinkable happens.
Juniper contracts the measles and unknowingly passes the disease along, with tragic consequences. She is shell-shocked. Juniper knows she is responsible and feels simultaneously helpless and furious at her parents, and herself.
Now, with the help of Nico, the boy who works at the library and loves movies and may just be more than a friend, Juniper comes to a decision: she is going to get vaccinated. Her parents refuse so Juniper arms herself with a lawyer and prepares for battle. But is waging war for her autonomy worth losing her family? How much is Juniper willing to risk for a shot at normal? (Goodreads)
I obtained this book through the publisher via Netgalley inexchange for an honest review.
Juniper and her family have always been an unusual family. Juniper's family grows most of their own food, use home made deoderant, and despite living directly across the street from a school, Juniper and her siblings are homeschooled. They are homeschooled not because they choose to turn their backs on consumerism and live off the land, but because Juniper's parent's don't believe in vaxinations. When Juniper catches the measles and accidently passes it along to a baby who dies, she becomes desperate to be vaccinated. As the knowledge of Juniper's status flows through the community and her want for vaccinations begins to tear their family apart, she gets an unexpected taste of the "normal" world as she develops a relationship with Nico, the cute boy who goes to school across the street, and his beloved film club friends.
For some reason when I read the description of this book Ithought Juniper was middle school age, I was prepared for something very a la My Sisters Keeper but I was very wrong. What I liked about this book was also what I wanted more of. I wish there had been more of a conversation between Juniper and her parents. Let me preface this by saying, I am in support of vaccinations. I don't have kids, I don't plan to have kids, but if I did have kids, they would absolutely be vaccinated. I've heard a few of the same reasons people choose not to support vaccinations. I've heard people say vaccines cause autism (false by the way. I'm a librarian. I'm overly trained in obtaining accurate information), I've heard people say that a child's immune system is enough to fight these illnesses and/or they want to strengthen their child's immune system. I've also heard folks say that they didn't want to fill their child's body with foreign chemicals. Fine I guess. These were the same arguments that Juniper's parents used when they were willing to talk about their decision not to vaccinate at all, which... often they weren't. There may not be any additional reasons for white parents to choose not to vaccinate, but I wish there were. I wish I was satisfied but I wasn't. I liked this book. I liked this girl who knew that she could legally get an abortion without her parents consent and demanded answers to why she couldn't get vaccinations without their consent (good question by the way).
Now some of my readers (all 2 of you) might wonder why I specified white parents, and that's because the only "excuse" for non vaccinations that I heard, that I couldn't immediately respond to, was from a black woman. A black friend of mine with two kids said she was choosing not to vaccinate her children because her family was directly affected by the Tuskegee Experiment, they were being compensated to this day, and she couldn't bring herself to risk her children with doctors that we have data to verify their prejudice against black families. She was right. I had no response. Heck I don't go to doctors until HEP forces me too because of negative experiences, such as the time I was told I didn't look sick enough to have the flu. Not only did I have the flu, SURPRISE, I had mono too, but because I didn't "look sick enough" I had to beg for a test. I don't blame my friend.
I liked this book. I actually plan to buy it for my library collection, but I wish we saw more interaction between Juniper and her parents. I think it would have invigorated the story.
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