A Story About Cancer With a Happy Ending

October 29, 2018
Quebecois author Desjardins (Le Journal d’Aurélie Laflamme) opens her story about a 15-year-old leukemia patient waiting for a meeting with her doctor, who will tell her and her parents “how much time I have left to live.” In the five years since her diagnosis, the girl explains, the threat of death has hung over even ordinary adolescent conflicts. She grieves over the loss of her hospital comrade in arms, Maxine, and chafes against her mother’s vocal insistence that “I was strong... I was going to survive this struggle.” Ferrer uses surreal imagery in purples and greens to convey the girl’s experiences, as when grief renders her limbs limp. Funereal gray wash gives way to rust red during moments of warmth, especially when she falls in love with Victor, the unflappable boyfriend whose support sustains her. As the title promises, the news is good. The first-person narration lends an introspective sense of calm to the dark circumstances, and the sensitivity with which Desjardins imagines the girl’s emotions and familial relationships makes the journey personal. Ages 10–14.

Starred review from December 21, 2018

Gr 6-10-A 15-year-old girl living with leukemia for five years visits the doctor to learn how long she has to live. Flashbacks through years of treatments, the death of her friend, Maxine, and falling in love with Victor make for a richly personal story. Paradoxically, readers never learn the name of the main character. She reflects on the actions and reactions of parents, friends, and acquaintances as she experiences colors, scents, and sounds and relives the emotional journey of cancer. Just as the protagonist is about to give up hope and doesn't think she can wait any longer to talk with her doctor, she learns that she is cured. As the story closes, and the heroine reveals the news to Victor, she sheds a coat of shadows, and color comes back into the picture. Borderless paintings integrate with the text to say much more than either media could alone. From pain and sadness to hope and love, dramatic illustrations extend feelings with shadows of blue-gray and red-purple. VERDICT Through a well-told first person account and captivating illustrations, this personal yet universal story of illness and hope presents the many shades of human emotion. An excellent selection.-Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa and Polk County Public Schools.

Starred review from November 15, 2018
After five years of leukemia treatments, a 15-year-old gets her prognosis."In just a few minutes, they're going to tell me how much time I have left to live," opens this slim volume holding a full-bodied story. As the narrator walks down a hospital corridor, the door at the end appears so small it almost vanishes, showing how far away her fate still feels. While waiting, she takes readers through her years of treatment, touching on medical, emotional, and social aspects as well as hospital smells and sounds. She experiences romance; she has strong but unidealized parents. Cancer clich�s receive welcome push back: Her best friend's death was "definitely not because she wasn't strong enough or didn't fight hard enough," and her own process isn't a "battle...because there was nothing I could do to fight it. All I could do was let everything happen." The titular spoiler sets this reassuringly apart from cancer stories that lean on suspense. Ferrer illustrates every page in pen and watercolor, using mostly reds and greens of low intensity that range dramatically from pale to dark; blacks and browns are secondary. Some visual elements are unnerving and fantastical--doors and tiles at a slant, bodies boneless or full of Swiss cheese-like holes. Compositions are ever shifting. Most characters', including the protagonist's, skin tones range from pallor to healthy pink.Visually dreamlike, textually grounded: a deft balance proving that a single-issue exploration needn't be formulaic or dry. (Picture book. 9-15)

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December 1, 2018
Grades 6-9 The unnamed 15-year-old protagonist and narrator of the story has suffered from leukemia since she was 10, and she is tired of hearing her mother tell her she is strong. Can't everyone treat her like a normal person? People look at you a certain way when you have cancer. It's a look, she thinks, that says you're going to die. But will she? Today is the day when she will finally learn the truth from her doctor. As she waits for the verdict, she remembers her experiences of being ill, losing her best friend to cancer, feeling guilty for getting more attention than her sister, and thinking that everyone would be better off if she just died. But think what she would miss. Especially her boyfriend, Victor: his eyes, his voice, his smell, his hands. The spare, straightforward story is robbed of drama by the subtitle, of course, and must rely on the heavily stylized illustrations for atmosphere. The result is a low-key but effective take on a deadly disease.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)