Groovy Girl

Isabel “Isa” José is the youngest member of a Filipino-American family living in suburban Los Angeles. She chronicles the ongoing struggles of a competitive environment, where the things that her family does to harm each other in the name of love and the pursuit of happiness are interrupted by that inexorable force called life. The Josés are stunned by the diagnosis of colon cancer of 19-year-old wunderkind Makena. The daily grinds of their family life and strife are thrown into disarray, and for 8-year-old Isa, innocence is something lost before she realized she had it. As always occurs with sudden illness in the family, routines are disrupted, and a new rhythm emerges. But will the gravity and reality of a life-threatening disease shift the Josés into greater harmony, finding peace where little existed before? Or will they be ripped asunder beneath the pressure of surgeries, feuds, and old grudges? Little Isa, an inquiring mind for an 8-year-old, wants to know…