March IRB

This month I read a book called This Star Won’t Go Out written by Esther Earl herself a few words from John Green, and more from her two parents Lori Earl, and Wayne Earl. What most people don’t know about this book/person but the book and movie The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green was inspired by Esther Earl herself. Esther was diagnosed with metastasized papillary thyroid cancer at the age of 12 which was in 2006. She fought a long and hard battle for about 4 years and she died August 25, 2010. But while she was fighting cancer she wrote in a journal which was later put into this book, it also included pictures of Esther with her family and friends and her feelings towards things that were happening in her life of battle. In the beginning of the book, John Green tells his side of his story. They met at a event for Harry Potter fans and talked for hours. They later found out that they talked on the internet before they met in real life because Esther had a Harry Potter fan account. After that they kept in contact and always met up until she started getting really sick. John really liked having her as a friend and when she passed away he was very sad and one thing he did was write about his feelings which was later turned into one of the best selling books and great box office success movies. This is a great book that will bring many emotions out, and it will inspire you to always look at the positive side when not everything is going alright.

Since there were four different authors of this book, they all wrote differently, but a few things were different. Her parents talked about their love for her and how she changed the way they looked at life. They also talked about their struggles of being a parent of a child who has cancer, but they also talked about all the great things they shared with Esther. John Green wrote about how his whole relationship with Esther started and the impact she left on his life. Esther’s journal was put in this book and she wrote about how she emotionally and physically felt, and also about fun things she got to do but also the not so fun things. Esther also made video diaries which were talked about and many people would tune in and watch them. Her parents also added pictures of Esther throughout her entire life, she was a happy girl, even though she struggled for years. I think the authors wrote like this because they wanted to show that Esther fought a long and hard battle but throughout all of it she stayed positive and inspired others daily. I think they also put the hard and sad things to read in this book because people need to know the truth about fighting cancer.

Esther Earl

Nothing really surprised me while reading this but I was surprised how her body would react to things and how she mentally reacted or wrote about because if I were her I would probably always be crying or depressed or mad, but Esther looked at it different. She made every situation better by how she reacted to them. What I did like about this book was how personal it was with everyones own words and thoughts. I also liked how they included pictures, notes and drawings done by Esther. I also liked just the way Esther handled everything, she was a true fighter. The things I disliked about this book was obviously that she got cancer in the first place and that she passed away. I also didn’t like reading some of the things she wrote because they were sometimes a little disturbing.

This book taught me that life will throw challenges at you, like cancer. But know matter what stay positive through it all and somehow express your feelings because it will help you get through a lot. I think the theme is like what I said about what this book taught be but also always show love towards others even when you are mad at the world. And another thing that I learned was from John Green on his tumblr account. “Esther taught me to Live Life or To Be Grateful or Not To Take Beauty for Granted.” After reading this I can totally agree because this is exactly how Esther looked at life and how she acted towards her life struggle.

While I was reading this book I had many different emotions towards it, sometimes it made me laugh and other times I would tear up but overall it was a very inspirational story. I don’t have any questions because this was a great book with great details about everything you needed to know. This book was made into a movie called The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. There were a couple similarities Esther and Hazel both had thyroid cancer. Esther's parents said they both acted a lot alike. One big difference was Esther  never had a boyfriend but her mom said she would love to have met someone like Gus, which also means all the things that happened with Gus and Hazel never really happened. One thing that was also similar was how strong emotionally and physically Hazel and Esther were. This was a great book and I would recommend it to everyone. It taught me a lot and we will forever miss you Esther Earl.

Hayden Wyrick