*Starred Review* Would you rather lose all your hair or all your teeth? Those are the kinds of questions Natalie and her friends ask each other when they sit around their hangout, the Ding-Dong. Would you rather die or have everyone else die? That becomes more than a question when Natalie's beloved sister, Claire, is hit by a car. In short chapters that are wrenching, honest, even funny at times, Jocelyn takes readers on Natalie's journey from Before to After. Natalie is coming home from a night out with friends when she gets the phone call. As she learns later, Claire was breaking up with her boyfriend, and when the exchange became emotional, she ran into the street without looking. Now, she lies in her hospital room, tethered to machines, body swollen, head shaved, in a coma. In the few days that pass from book's beginning to end, Natalie and her family go through the familiar stages of grief. Friends rally, tempers flare, there are even the painfully realistic moments as when a secret crush kisses Natalie, and she is guiltily glad she is alive. The book's brevity makes the sadness bearable, but this will stay with readers for a long time.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2008 Booklist

Gr 8-11--Curing the summer following her sophomore year of high school, Natalie and her friends innocently spend their time between pool hopping and playing a game called "Would You," which poses questions such as: "Would you rather lose all your hair or all your teeth?" and "Would you rather know what's going to happen or not know?" When Natalie's popular 18-year-old sister Claire is tragically struck by an car, Natalie's life is changed forever. Claire remains comatose, and Natalie watches her mother fall apart and her father become consumed with anger. When Claire is declared brain dead, the family must make some difficult decisions. Marthe Jocelyn's story (Wendy Lamb Bks., 2008) is told from Natalie's point of view. Drawing on her own experiences, the author skillfully portrays a totally believable Natalie and has created a story that will make listeners laugh and cry. Renee Raudman does an extraordinary job of clearly conveying Natalie's pain, confusion, and anger, while maintaining her youthful naiveté. Raudman appropriately modifies her tone to create unique characters. A superb interpretation of an poignant, emotionally honest, and powerful novel.--Amy Joslyn, Fairport Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Sisters Claire and Natalie share a room, clothes and secrets until an accident separates them forever. Pretty and popular, Claire's in a "perpetual good mood" as she anticipates leaving for college. Although Natalie's busy with her summer job as a lifeguard and hanging out with her friends, she feels as though Claire's abandoning her to face 11th grade on her own. Then Claire goes to meet her boyfriend, is hit by a car and ends up on life support in the ICU. Natalie relates the events in the week leading up to and following Claire's accident in the present tense; this device is particularly effective as she describes the profound shock, disbelief and grief as she, their parents and their friends try to cope with the reality of Claire's situation. Afraid to imagine life without her sister, Natalie's honest enough to know Claire's chances of survival are slim. The narrative's strength is in its candor: At one point Natalie sees Claire's new laptop and thinks it will be hers now, then instantly feels remorse. A realistic and very credible account of how one family's life is inexplicably and unexpectedly shattered. (Fiction. 14 & up) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

(High School) The title of this deeply affecting novel comes from a question-and-answer game that narrator Natalie, a high school junior, plays with her friends. "Would you rather eat a rat with the fur still on or eat sewage straight from the pipe? Would you rather lose all your hair or all your teeth?" The game's objective, as Natalie's friend Carson explains, "is to have options that are not options." This description also fits the no-win situation Natalie and her parents are thrust into when Natalie's older sister Claire is hit by a car and lies in a coma, kept alive by a ventilator. Divided into a series of brief, subtitled scenes, the narrative eloquently conveys how quickly "normal" life can change into something surreal; how Natalie's relationship with Claire can go from affectionate banter while prepping for a night out to the one-way conversations Natalie holds with her sister's motionless body in the hospital room. The easygoing rapport Jocelyn establishes amongst Natalie's group of friends further heightens this contrast. After the accident, their typical activities of after-dark pool hopping and verbal dueling at the local diner morph into awkward discussions of whether, in Claire's situation, it's better to live or die. Readers will acutely feel Natalie's ache that Claire can't contribute her opinion. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The opening chapters give little hint of the intensity of Jocelyn's (How It Happened in Peach Hill) exquisitely honed novel. Soon-to-be-high school junior Natalie and her friends like to play "Would you..."--a game exemplified by the book's first lines: "Would you rather know what's going to happen? Or not know?" Abruptly everything changes: Natalie's older sister, Claire, is struck by a car and rendered comatose. Jocelyn maintains a measured pace as the next few days unfold: Natalie watches her mother numb herself with tranquilizers, her father grow angry and look for someone to blame. Although the plot line sounds like that of a standard weeper, the author resists the urge to magnify emotions. Natalie reacts honestly, neither beautifully nor nobly--she is initially repulsed when a nurse asks her to massage Claire's grossly swollen feet; she lashes out at a boy who already (and needlessly) feels guilty. The light touch with which Jocelyn handles her difficult material is best seen when Claire is declared brain-dead and taken off life support: the humanity in the author's treatment affords the reader a sense both of grief and of peace. Ages 14-up. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved