The Curious Case of Brooke Greenberg

The author of The Curious Case of Brooke Greenberg:16-Year-Old Has the Body and Mind of a Toddler opens the story by describing what sounds like a normal person, but the story quickly turns in a very different direction. At the time the article is written, Brooke is 16, but she still looks and acts like a baby because unlike most children, she is not growing. The author makes the obvious point that Brooke cannot do the things other girls her age do, such as learn how to drive or go to a prom, which evokes sympathy in the reader. The doctors don’t have all the answers about Brooke’s unique condition, but they do know that she has some kind of gene mutation that prevents her from aging. Brooke is not simply a tragic medical case but also important because she may give doctors an idea about how to delay aging in other humans. The author attempts in some ways to portray Brooke as normal. For instance, the author describes how Brooke had a Bat Mitzvah when she turned thirteen and that her two sisters have normal development. The author of this article seemed concerned with explaining why Brooke is so important to the medical world, while at the same time showing her as a real person who is loved and cherished by her family. Finally, the author wittily chose the title The Curious Case of Brooke Greenberg due to the short story written by Scott Fitzgerald called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button about a man who ages backwards, a unique condition similar in aspects to Brooke’s.