Rawl Paige and Ali Benjamin. Positive: A Memoir. New York: Harper Collins, 2014.

I have so many students who prefer nonfiction. They want to read “real” stories, not made up ones. This book is perfect for them. Paige Rawl describes in her memoir a fairly normal and relatively happy childhood. She believes as a small child that all children have to take their medication before bed time and visit the doctor fairly often. Not until she is old enough to read and process some information on her medical charts does she have an honest talk with her mom about her HIV positive status. Her mom was infected by her husband, Paige’s dad and did not know she was HIV positive when she gave birth to her baby girl. When the diagnosis was made this courageous mom made it her mission to care for and protect her daughter. And certainly she does…for years until middle school happens.

I book talked this title just last week, and the 11th grade students knew immediately what happened when I mention middle school. They knew without a doubt that 7th grade Paige was bullied unmercifully when the secret of her status was spread throughout the school after she confided in her best friend – the best friend that she would never speak to again. As an educator and a mom, Paige’s story is heartbreaking to read. A pageant winner, a cheerleader, a good student, and friend, she is rendered helpless by the treatment of fellow students and the refusal of the adults in her school to intervene. Ultimately, her suffering from stress induced seizures and self-medicating through cutting leads her mother to remove her from middle school.

In the end, Paige is an overcomer. Her strength shines through and sets an amazing example for her readers. I am pleased at the interest shown in her story by my students. I hope that her stories make each reader more compassionate and aware of the students around them. I hope they are inspired by the few friends that stand with Paige and try to stem the tide of ignorance and abuse she ignores. I hope they think twice about name calling and judging. I hope they can learn to not be defined by what they cannot control. Certainly it would have been easier for Paige to stop telling her story. To quietly try to heal and gain a measure of privacy in her life. I am grateful that she chose the path of sharing and reaching out.

I chose to talk her story on a slide about overcomers that also included a biography of Michael Oher and Temple Grandin. I am absolutely convinced that books have the power to change their readers for the better, and Positive by Paige Rawl can do so!