Review: It's My Life
It's My Life by Stacie Ramey Category: Young Adult Reviewer: Michelle Falkoff Jenna Cohen, a teenage girl with cerebral palsy, wants two things: medical emancipation (so she can have a proper say in decisions about her treatment) and Julian Van Beck (her childhood love who moved away and has now come back). The book tracks both her decision whether to move forward with legal proceedings against her parents and her developing relationship with Julian, conducted via text messages in which she keeps her identity a secret. While there are few surprises in how the two parallel tracks of the book progress, Ramey’s description of the Cohen family is loving and generous, and Julian is a charming romantic lead. Jenna does not come across as quite so feisty as the other characters perceive her to be, and her emancipation struggle might have been more convincing if readers were provided some additional detail about what her goals are versus what her parents want for her. She is a...