What a gorgeous story.

Kasey and Ivy by Alison Hughes is the gorgeous tale of a young girl who has to spend a prolonged period in hospital. Her thoughts are tracked in her almost daily letters to her friend at home. Through them we learn of the comings and goings of the hospital and the inertia that Kasey feels and her desperation to be able to go home along with her acceptance and curiosity about the other patients.

As someone who has spent a lot of time in hospital I found Hughes’ descriptions as painfully accurate. Even down to the less than tasty food.

Kasey and Ivy is such a good story that is completely heart-warming and is definitely best read in one sitting.

Kasey and Ivy by Alison Hughes is available now.

For more information regarding Orca Book Publishers (@orcabook) please visit www.orcabook.com.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review which has not altered my opinion of the book.

This book was super adorable and really well done. Written in the form of letters to her next door neighbor and best friend, this book follows Nina as she spends a month in the hospital while the doctors help her with a bone disease. I love the perspective that this was written, and I love that she named her IV...Ivy. She found a way to keep her germaphobe tendencies at bay for the most part, and still enjoy herself and ends up making friends with the elderly people in her ward. My only criticism would be that at times she sounded more adult than I would think she would act.

Overall, I think this would be a great book for middle school aged kids to read. It's fun and I really enjoyed it! 4.5 out of 5.

12 year old Kasey has a treatable bone disease, and must spend a month in the hospital for IV treatments. For germ phobic Kasey, this is at first a horrifying, sleepless, boring endeavor. It doesn’t help that the hospital has now Wi-fi, two television stations, and no other kids, just elderly people. She survives by writing to her best friend, Nina, and slowly discovers that life can have meaning even in her tiny hospital room.

I’ve read a lot of traumatic middle grade novels, so it was nice that this one was a slice-of-life with a slow, realistic momentum. Kasey is believable as a tween who has lost half of her summer to this strange disease, yet never feels truly sick or run down. I enjoyed her growth as she begins to help the elderly patients, and befriend a high school aide who would rather hang out at the hospital than to go home.

Thank you to Orca Book Publishers and Netgalley for an ARC.

Kasey & Ivy
by Alison Hughes

Orca Book Publishers

Middle Grade
Pub Date 20 Mar 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Kasey and Ivy through Orca Book Publishers and Netgalley:


After a soccer injury doesn't heal in a few weeks, Kasey is taking o the hospital for a bone scan that shows she has a rare but curable bone disease but it also means she'll have to be hooked up to Ivy for a month:


Kasey is placed in the geriatric ward of the hospital while she is given IV antibiotics and writes letters to her friend Nina to pass the time, with humor and heart she tells her friend of her life in the hospital the people she meets,.

I give Kasey and Ivy five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A cute story about a young girl who ends up needing a hospital stay and how she manages through her stay, both personally and interpersonally. I think maybe for a young person needing to go through a long term illness away from home this may be a good distraction and a help but honestly, I feel it is better for a younger audience, more like 8-10. I have an almost-12 year old and I can't see her interest being held long by this story unless maybe if she was in a similar situation to the main character.

Overall though, I think the message is a helpful one for young kids and I can see it being a comfort to those in a similar situation to the young main character.

*I was sent this free ebook by Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers in exchange for an honest review. **
I loved Kasey & Ivy so much! I typically read YA and Adult books (as I am in my 20s), so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to connect with the story. I am beyond glad that I decided to read this after all. Kasey is such a loveable character. The writing is great and captures what I believe is how a young child would feel being in a hospital. The story is written in letters from Kasey to her friend Nina which makes for a unique read. I do wish we would have gotten some letters from Nina to Kasey, although they were not necessary to the story. Kasey relationship with the patients and staff at the hospital warmed my heart. I laughed and cried with this book. 10 our of 10 would recommend to all ages. I would give this book 20 stars if I could.

*thank you to Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

3 stars.

This is quite an accurate story of what it is really like stuck in a hospital Ward for a month. It is as boring as you can imagine but, as this story tells, there are things that happen and friends you dont ever expect to meet. I loved Kasey. She was hilarious at times and the way this is written, in letter format was quite good. I liked too that she named her IV as Ivy as though she was a friend. That was clever. Kelsey as a pretty big fear of germs which isn't something that you see alot of in middle grade books so it was a nice touch. I have to mention too that the cover for this is really good. The story is based on the author's own experience of having to stay in hospital for a month when she was only 9 years old.

This book is about a young girl who gets sick (with a totally treatable bone disease) and somehow ends up in the geriatric ward. This book is told entirely through letters written to her friend Nina where she talks about everything from the food to her exercise routine to her new friends.


Oh I adored this book! I was impressed by how even though it was written in the style of letters to someone, it still was engaging. I loved ivy (I.V.) and all the friends she made along the way. She learned so much as a character after being in the geriatric ward and she definitely came away with more understanding. I found her character overall to be cute, kind, and so open to new things! I was confused for a lot of book when she was describing certain things in reference to the hospital, but that was before I knew this was based on the author’s personal experience going through the same thing as kasey at her age. I loved reading this and recommend if you’re in search of an adorable middle grade that’s just too pure.

Okay so this was,,,,, not as amazing as I thought it would be, which is very disappointing. I definitely think it’s good as Children’s Literature, but the middle grade advertisement had me expecting the voice and word choice to be a little more mature than it was. I think, as it stands, it’s more of a book for younger kids than preteens.

<i>Kasey and Ivy</i> is the story of twelve-year old Kasey, who has an unexpected month’s stay in the hospital after being diagnosed with a rare bone infection. The story is told all through letters from Kasey to her best friend on the outside, Nina.

The premise is <b>sweet and a little bit sad</b>, but the plot within the story moved…..slowly. I thought that more of the letters would take place during Kasey’s actual hospital stay, but the entire process of being diagnosed and checked into the hospital took up about <b>forty percent of the novel</b>. I was super bored and didn’t really want to pick up the book and keep reading, especially when I could be reading something so much better.

The characters all stood out in their own unique ways, and Kasey’s fear of germs and old people will be humorous (and relatable!) to both kids and adults. However, when it came to Kasey’s character arc, I was just kind of like… ????. There wasn’t really any character development when it came to her accepting that she would be in the hospital for awhile, but then all the sudden she’s talking about how lucky she is in one of her letters. I wish there had been more buildup, and small realizations throughout the story, because it would have made the moment that much sweeter. It was sorta like she just flipped a switch in her head, but it was so abrupt that it threw me off guard.

The writing was not my favorite. It felt a lot younger than middle grade, and the constant reminders of the difference between military and regular time grew very boring very fast. The overall feeling I got from the writing was dyadic, dyadic, and dyadic. It kind of annoys me when middle grade authors do this, because, like, kids aren’t stupid. They’re gonna know how to make tally marks, and they’re going to be able to tell military and regular time apart by the second or third flipping time you mention it. Let the kids fill in the lines when they read, they’re not dumb.

All this being said, I definitely feel that <b>this book can be a great help and reference for kids going through long hospital stays</b>. It can also be used as a great resource for kids whose siblings or friends are in the hospital. It was a cute, sweet story that might not be the most high-quality thing out there, but I’m sure people will enjoy it.

<i>I was provided an eARC copy through NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review. </i>

While this brief book provided interesting insight into the process of a child undergoing cancer treatment and the friends she makes at the hospital, I felt like the main character was incomplete. Cancer seemed to be her defining characteristic. The friendship she made with Missy Wong was touching but I would’ve liked to know more about Kasey and who she was beyond the hospital room (other than the fact that she played soccer).

This book was hilarious. A snall girl with extremwly bad luck unds up getting stuck in th geriatric ward and has a weird fear of old people😂😂😂😂 this is definitely a unique story.

Received an e-arc from Orca Book Publishers, for an honest review, thank you!

This is the first book I read on on 2018 and my new favorite, this is a middle grade oriented book, but I truly enjoyed it! Enjoy the cover as it is artistry and intriguing.

This book is about a 12 year old girl Kasey who gets hospitalized for more than a month because of her bruise on the leg, which turns out to be infected very badly and the situation is serious. She is placed in hospital where every other patient is an elderly and none of the other patients are kids or anyone her age. The book starts with Kasey's first letter to her best friend Nina, the book represents only letters from Kasey's side, although it is well understood Nina writes back to her too.
Kasey in her letters tells absolutely everything - her fears, her viewpoints to hospital inhabitants and employees, how lonely she feels, even when her parents/family visits them. This book gives an inner view about dementia and what it makes people turn, how hospitals and old people are not so scary. It also touches vaguely a topic that she is not very close to her mum, because being the eldest of 5 children, the youngest she keeps on calling as "baby". This book involves a very good storytelling, humor episodes, and main character growth.

The idea of this book is very interesting. There were thirty-six letters from Kasey to Nina. It all started with Kasey's adventure at the hospital because her legs were swollen. Apparently it was not a common illness so Kasey had to receive hospitalization for 1 month. The most interesting thing about this story is the contents of Kasey's letter to Nina. Kasey passes the ride in the hospital, meeting Missy Wong, the oldest patient. Sensitive points in the hospital are also told by Kasey's who very young point of view. Truly this story gives inspiration to dare for anyone, parents and small children who go to the hospital. And this story also makes me think there are still many things that we need to appreciate when hospitalized. Nice ,,, even though no reply from Nina is described but still very interesting. #KaseyandIvy #NetGalley

Kasey as the protagonist of the book is everyone of us when we have to stay in a hospital. It feels even more lonely since she is the only kid on a unit for old people. But Kasey being brave quickly makes friends among elderly and staff and she learns a very important lesson - that she is very lucky having loving family, friends and getting her health back. I really enjoyed this story because it was very real, moving and true to life. I highly recommend it to readers of all ages.

This was a quick read but I didn't find it very interesting. I really thought I would enjoy this.

Wow, what a delightful book. The cover drew me in, and then the bright, funny, real voice of Kasey pulled me in the rest of the way.

The longest I have had to spend in a hospital was about a week, when my daughter was born. I hated it. Kasey has to stay a month, with old people, as the children's ward is having renovations. At first Kasey doesn't like to be around people. She thinks they are strange. Then she warms to them, as the story progresses. As she likes to say, being in the hospital is like being in a little village, with all the different characters you would meet.

And we get to meet all the characters through her letters that she writes home to her best friend. Missy Wong, the old woman who wants to go "upstairs" all the time. Louise, the candy stripper, (or whatever they are known as in Canada), who brings by snacks, and Night Owl, one of the night nurses.

The friendship between Missy Wong and Kasey is so strong, it was wonderful to read that she based it on someone the author met in the hospital when had to stay there, she was nine years old


The funny thing is, as I was reading this book, as an American, I thought, wow, this must be in Canada because the <em>cost</em> of her stay is never brought up, and isn't part of the plot, the way it would be in the US. What does that say about how different this book would have been.

Highly recommend this book for all, even if you don't like middle school books. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry. It'll make you stay up late to finish it, even when you have to get up the next day.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A great kids book about a twelve year old girl who unexpectedly finds herself stuck in the geriatric ward of a hospital for the first month of summer. Written in the format of letters to her best friend, the author beautifully documents not just what Kasey goes through and learns during her month, but what it's like to be away from your family and friends. A sweet story full of humor and insights.