What's New in Cancer Books

By Kathy LaTour

Many books arrive at CURE throughout the year. Here are a few we think you may want to know about.

An Adolescent View of Cancer

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie
[Turning Tide Press, 2004]
By Jordan Sonnenblick

This is one of those strange little books you can’t put down. Strange because it’s a fiction book told from the perspective of an adolescent boy whose 5-year-old brother has been diagnosed with leukemia.

What makes this a great book for any family facing cancer is that we get to hear the complexities of being an adolescent when cancer is in the family. While in this case it’s a little brother who is sick, it could have been a parent just as easily.

Sonnenblick masterfully gets into the head of 13-year-old Steven, who, while not telling anyone about his brother’s diagnosis, has to go to school, deal with crushes and relationships, and try to keep up with his drumming and band activities, while mom has had to quit her job to ferry 5-year-old Jeffrey to and from treatment in another city. Dad, in the meantime, struggles with the financial issues and the inability to communicate his own feelings.

Sonnenblick’s ability to get inside the adolescent mind comes from his days teaching middle school English in Pennsylvania, and the story, he says, was inspired by a real student whose little brother was diagnosed with cancer.

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie can be easily read by adolescents. In fact, the publisher of the book has donated 4,000 copies to SuperSibs!, a support organization for siblings of children with cancer ages 4 through 18. For more information, go to www.supersibs.org.

Engaging the Spirit

The Breast Cancer Care Book: A Survival Guide for Patients
and Loved Ones
[Zondervan, 2004]
By Sally Knox, MD

There are many books on the subject of breast cancer and its treatment by breast physicians, and Sally Knox, MD, had been asked before to add her name to the list. But not until Zondervan approached her about writing a book that combined information and spiritual support did Dr. Knox agree.

The result is a book that provides not only step-by-step practical information combined with patients’ stories, but also faith-based comfort, combining a surgeon’s perspective and a missionary’s heart. In addition to the practical information about diagnosis, treatment and recovery, Dr. Knox looks at the feelings and relationships when cancer is in the family, providing those living with breast cancer practical and comforting words from which to find medical answers, emotional help, spiritual strength and relational support.

Two Gems

Cancer survivors want to share what they have learned, meaning there are many books being published each year by those who have survived. Among these personal perspectives can be found remarkable little gems. Here are two reflections on breast cancer in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Joy Is a Plumb Colored Acrobat
[Crown Publishing, 2004]
By Wendy Burton

Most of us are told to fight cancer, to look at it as an enemy. But Wendy Burton, an artist and freelance literary agent specializing in illustrated books, embraced her cancer and found in it lessons of joy and illumination.

She created what she calls vibrant, energetic, whimsical images to help her through the experience. Instead of soldiers, she found tiny acrobats in her visualizations. What she has done for the reader is combine these colorful images with delightful visualizations for moments and feelings in the cancer journey that have pink flamingos, bright umbrellas and a trip down the Amazon helping you cope. This is a great gift for someone newly diagnosed: bright, cheerful, whimsical—but powerful medicine.

Songs from a Lead-Lined Room
[Crown Publishing, 2004]
By Suzanne Stempek Shea

So how would an award-winning fiction writer tell her breast cancer story? To find out, pick up a copy of Suzanne Stempek Shea’s book. Good writing is good writing no matter the topic, and for those of us in the cancer community, Shea’s exploration of radiation and the experiences and people she met are better than any fiction—and as most of us know, a lot stranger and more intense. I like this book for the intensity just as much as I like Burton’s for its whimsy.