Wink, Rob Harrell
Wink, Rob Harrell
2 Rating(s)
List: $18.00 | Sale: $12.60
Club: $9.00

Wink

Author: Rob Harrell

Narrator: Michael Crouch, Marc Thompson

Unabridged: 6 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/31/2020

Synopsis

A hilarious and heartwrenching story about surviving middle school—and an unthinkable diagnosis—while embracing life's weirdness.

Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn't want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don't know what to say to "the cancer kid." But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table.

Based on Rob Harrell's real life experience, this incredibly personal and poignant novel is an unforgettable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting story of survival and finding the music, magic, and laughter in life's weirdness.

About The Author

Rob Harrell is the author/illustrator of Wink and the Batpig series, created the Life of Zarf series, the graphic novel Monster on the Hill, and also writes and draws the long-running daily comic strip Adam@Home, which appears in more than 140 papers worldwide. He created and drew the internationally syndicated comic strip Big Top until 2007. He lives with his pup in Indiana.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on July 20, 2020

This is a wonderful work of Young-Adult fiction about a young lad called Ross who is unlucky enough to be diagnosed with a rare form of eye Cancer. He consequently needs to attend 8 weeks of radiation therapy, which is no small thing – physically and emotionally. Wink by Rob Harrell is a solid 4-sta......more

Goodreads review by Betsy on May 27, 2020

They say, write what you know. And if what you know is how to lie on a steel table, your head screwed into place, a laser pointed at your face, that might be a good place to start. We live in dark times. How dark are they? SO dark that a book about a kid with a potentially deadly eye cancer is the b......more

Goodreads review by Melanie on November 09, 2024

I love a book that leaves me in a state that is a combination of tears, sighs of satisfaction and bit of laughter, too. Rob Harrell's semi-autobiographical middle grades novel takes the themes and heart of R. J. Palacio's Wonder and roughs it up a little with a heavier dose of very real middle schoo......more

Goodreads review by Deacon Tom on March 27, 2024

Marvelous Absolutely fantastic! This book was recommended because I have cancer and the person who recommended it thought that I would get some inside into how the young man deal with all of the problems. It is emotionally touching for me as I saw my struggles in the struggles of the young boy. I’m als......more

Goodreads review by Rod on June 25, 2020

I put this on my to-read list because I enjoyed reading Rob Harrell's Big Top comic strip back in the day. I was disappointed when it was canceled, and I never got into the generic family strip he was hired to take over afterward. I thought at first this book was an original graphic memoir by him, b......more

Quotes

ALA Notable Book
ALSC Notable Book
Barnes and Noble Children’s Book Award Finalist
TIME Best Book of the Year
NYPL Best Book for Kids
NPR's Book Concierge Pick
Evanston Public Library Great Books for Kids 
A Texas Lone Star Reading List Selection
2021 ALSC Notable Children’s Books List

"Harrell's genius is making all of it feel authentic for a seventh grader, a teenager who, like countless others, just wants to be normal . . . Bodies change, people change, life continues. It's a lesson a lot of us have been learning, and relearning, in recent days." —New York Times Book Review

★ "Filled with the same sardonic humor and celebration of atypical friendships as his Life of Zarf series, Harrell draws from personal experience to track the wild emotional roller coaster a seventh-grader rides after being diagnosed with a rare tear duct cancer.” —Booklist, starred review 

★ "This page-turner is not to be missed." —School Library Connection, starred review

★ "Amusing black-and-white comics trace his unsavory experiences, capture the ironies of his predicament, and underline his creativity and sense of humor . . . This lively novel showcases the author’s understanding of middle school angst amid the protagonist’s experience with a serious illness." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The author balances this anger element well against the typical middle-grade tropes . . . While some of these elements will feel familiar, the novel's emotional climax remains effectively earned . . . Not your typical kid-with-cancer book."  —Kirkus

"The story’s beauty lies in how Ross’s life unfolds and opens . . . This title is delightfully good and different. Highly recommended." —School Library Journal

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