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Have you had a friend stick with you through your hard times, even though you didn’t want them to? Well, reading this novel will show you how lucky it is to have a friend beside you through your hardship. Zac and Mia is an award-winning novel written by A.J Betts published on the 24th of July 2013, set in Perth, Western Australia. It revolves around two contrasting teenagers who suffer from cancer as they face obstacles and difficulties from both the outside world and the hospital world while an unexpected friendship blossoms. Reading this book helps you escape reality and explore the emerging genre of “sick lit” for young adult readers. This novel not only engages you by showing two different perspectives from Zac and Mia, but it also reminds you of the little things to cherish in life that are important. The major themes that the author A.J Betts tries to convey are Friendship and Courage. That’s why I believe that this novel should continue to be studied by Year 9 students, as it explores these two themes that engage teenage audiences.
Firstly, it explores the importance of true friendship throughout the novel. Nowadays friendship is a very important part of everybody's life. The author tries to show this by contrasting the idea of ‘true friends’ and ‘fake friends’. Fake friendship is represented in the novel when Mia says “Plan C was Shay and other girlfriends who always promised to do anything for me” quoted from page 125, chapter 14. This implies that Mia had hoped that her ‘friends’ would always stick with her and expected them to do anything for her. She did not know that they would abandon and leave her when she needed them the most. The author exaggerated this statement that ‘they promised to do anything for her’ with the use of hyperbole to prove this fact. But an example of true friendship is evident in the novel when Zac says “Every time I feel I’m slipping off the edge of the earth, she catches me” on page 307 in the epilogue. A.J Bett uses a metaphor in this sentence to display that Mia never lets go of him even when he’s going through his hard times and feels like he has lost everything. This reflects the meaning of true friendship and what it looks like, as Mia and Zac both have each other’s backs and value and understand what friendship means to them. This theme can relate to a lot of teenagers who read this book, engaging them with the real-life scenarios making it believable and understandable on what real friendship looks and feels like.
Courage. Courage is a big part of this novel where Zac and Mia both face and overcome difficult situations. This is shown in the novel when Zac gives up on leukemia and stops fighting. But Mia doesn’t give up on him and tries to persuade him to fight back until he succeeds. A.J Betts tries to get the message out that ‘Any fear is possible to overcome with courage’. To convey this Mia states that “Courage is standing still even though you want to run. Courage is planting yourself and turning towards the thing that scares you...” quoted from page 300, chapter 39. Mia reflects on her personal experiences to showcase that courage is facing your fears by overcoming the situation and moving on with life with the use of metaphor and personification. Aiming this message at teenage readers. This also shows her characterization of how she has developed as a character from the start, from an angry and feisty character to an understanding and more mature character towards the end. These situations that both Zac and Mia face can set an example for all the teenagers who have obstacles in life but are scared to face them by giving them this message.
To conclude, if Year 9 students continue to read the novel Zac and Mia they will be able to learn the importance of true friendship and what it means to be courageous by learning from the experiences of Zac and Mia. I believe that these two messages can teach valuable lessons to every teenager and help them cherish the little things in life as well as understand them more. So what do you think now? Do you agree with me now that this novel should be continued to be read by Year 9 Students?
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