I had just started reading The Bubble Boy, when I came across an article on 'sick-lit', which made me think. There really are a lot of books about children who are ill, but I'd never thought about it in that way. And yes, the idea of the dying girl redeeming a broken man would irritate me.As a result, I was unfairly wary when I got through the first few chapters of The Bubble Boy. I didn't want the emotional manipulation that plays out like a formula in literature where someone may die, and I was more than a little sceptical.But I said 'unfairly' because The Bubble Boy is nothing like that. For one, it is not YA - the protagonist, Joe, is an eleven-year-old, who is called bubble boy because he is stuck in a bubble - a sterilised, temperature-controlled, heavily monitored hospital room. He has severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), and cannot ever leave his sanitised room. His … [Read more...]