Bubble

Gr 5–8—Eleven-year-old Joe Grant has lived in a sterile "bubble" within a London hospital since babyhood, afflicted with a rare genetic autoimmune disease. His sister Beth, a medical student, and the hospital staff are his only human contact, and he spends his time watching TV, reading on his iPad, taking lessons online, and communicating via computer with Henry, a boy with a similar condition who is quarantined in a Philadelphia hospital. Henry is anticipating a walk outside in a special suit developed by NASA, and Joe longs for the same opportunity. He keeps his spirits up by indulging in a superhero fantasy, imagining himself soaring through the city as Spider-Man. When a new night nurse, Amir, is assigned to him, Joe is at first put off by Amir's strange ideas—including his belief in alien beings from other planets—but he is soon won over when Amir offers him hope of a temporary escape from his confinement. Joe's first-person narrative details the minutiae of his condition and care and effectively conveys the monotony of his daily existence. His conflicting feelings of fear for his life and longing for adventure are poignantly depicted, and while some plot elements strain credibility, readers will empathize with Joe's situation and be drawn into the story. References to British sports and popular culture, though unfamiliar, make sense in context.