Positive

 Positive  by Paige Rawl 

ISBN 13:  978- 0062342539
 
Read Date: 03/21/2018- 03/21/2018

Publish Date: August 26th 2014

Positive: A Memoir by Paige Rawl is a blistering reminder of just how mean kids can be and how hard it is to be a kid.

HIV positive since birth, Paige Rawl never thought she was different from other kids she went to school with. She noticed the differences in how often she was out for a doctors appointment or how much medication she has to take compared to those her own age. However, she never saw herself as being different. Until she told her best friend she was HIV positive.

Shortly after, hours really, the bullying began. It started small, a little whisper here or a snarky remark there, but soon unfolded into writing on the walls and rumors. As all children are instructed to do, she went to her school administration for help. While in the confines of the school offices, she was told just to tell them " no, i don't have HIV/AIDS". Still,she refused to lie.

Eventually she had to leave her school and become home-schooled. She found herself suicidal and in the care of a facility. Through the help of the facility she got better, returned home and went to high school.

Paige eventually found herself at a camp for kids diagnosed with or affected by HIV/AIDs. There she was able to find her voice, find where she truly could be her wonderful self and not defined by her diagnosis.

Throughout a large of the book, you are taken through the lawsuit brought on by her mother against the school that failed to protect her.

Its not a long read, about 225 pages on an eBook, but it was a fantastic and sobering insight of growing up with a disease you can not control, and the bullying that affects most of the children and teens today.