  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 02/15/2023 *Starred Review* People are always telling Penny how lucky she is, and usually she agrees. She's got a great family, an awesome best friend in Cricket, and a house on a creek that's perfect for swimming. While Penny lives with cystic fibrosis, she leads a pretty regular life, even if she does need to take extra medicines and do her breathing treatments. But right now, it's sixth-grade spring break, she's healthy, she's excited to enter the sixth-grade poetry contest, and she has an amazing secret: there's a dolphin hanging around their dock. Then everything changes. Cricket's family is moving away, Penny can't get her poem started, it turns out that Rose, as Penny has named the dolphin, may have swum this far inland because she's sick, and Penny's not feeling all that great, either. This first-person novel in verse allows Penny to explain about cystic fibrosis and how she feels about having it, while also helping readers understand the special connections Penny feels with both Cricket and Rose. All this positive empathy is wrapped around a fast-paced story with fully developed characters. The realistic but happy ending proves that some friendships are meant to last, no matter the distance. - Copyright 2023 Booklist. Loading...
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