Angels in Pink-Kathleen's Story

Everyone needs some fun every once in a while. Kathleen thinks that she has too
much responsibility at home and doesn't have time for fun or time to volunteer as a
Pink Angel with her friends. Lurlene McDaniel's Angels in Pink (Kathleen's Story)
kept me on the edge of my seat with the constant action and different points of view
by the different characters.

Kathleen McKensie's home life is not the kind of life that anyone would want to
trade theirs for. Her mother, Mary Ellen, has multiple sclerosis (MS) and can
barely take care of herself. Kathleen got put as Mary Ellen's care taker at the age
of five and never has any time to do anything for herself. She has no time to act
like other girls her age do. When Kathleen's two best friends, Holly and Raina,
persuaded her to join a volunteer program at Parker-Sloan General Hospital as a Pink
Angel, Kathleen thought that this was going to be an awful summer and worried a lot
about the health of her mother who was left at home by herself. Later, Kathleen
finds out that this program is just what she needs to break out of her shell and
have a little fun.

Lurlene McDaniel moves from one of the main characters to the next in every
chapter. I like this style of writing because the book is not as boring with all of
the different events going on with each character. The drawback to this style is
the confusion that the reader gets from each chapter. The different chapters
confused me because they didn't seem to fit together until I read on a few more
chapters and the chapters before were all summed up. Lurlene's type of writing is
more serious and realistic than funny. There are a few funny parts in her stories,
but most of her story seems very realistic than comical. When i read Angels in
Pink, it seemed as if i was really in the hospital and at the characters houses
witnessing all of the action because the descriptions of the settings were very
elaborate.

Kathleen didn't like talking about her home life to other people besides Holly
and Raina. Most of the time, though, she didn't want to talk to them about her
situations at home, either. Mary Ellen was my least favorite character because she
was always so needy and complained way to much. She always wanted Kathleen to do
everything for her and Kathleen had to stop everything she was doing to make her
mother happy. If Kathleen came home a little later than planned from the hospital
or from running an errand, Mary Ellen would get very emotional. On Kathleen's first
day at the hospital, the orientation went a little longer than she thought it
would. When she walked in she saw that her mother had been crying. When she saw
Kathleen she said "I was scared. I - I thought something bad had happened to you."
Then she refused to eat unless Kathleen was right there eating beside her.

I recommend this book to people who like books that make the reader feel like
part of the story. Also Angels in Pink is a good book for people who have interests
in personal, realistic books.