This month our school is holding a fundraiser to raise awareness and support for pediatric cancer. We do this yearly, and I always think I should do a Brainstorm on pediatric cancer but I just realized I’ve never actually done one. This year, the fundraiser is particularly poignant since we have a student battling pediatric cancer himself. So it's time to actually do this. Here are several books with characters battling pediatric cancer. Click on the titles to see my full review if I've read the book. If I haven't it'll lead you to a longer summary and other reviews on GoodReads.
The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Cranes by Sue DiCicco & Masashiro Sasaki
A biography of Sadako Sasaki, a twelve year old girl who battled leukemia after the bombing of Hiroshima. Written with the help of her brother.
Target Readers:
Biography Fans, Japanese History Fans, WWII History Buffs, Middle Grade Readers
The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart
Mark is disheartened when he hears that the cancer is back again. He’s so tired of fighting. So he heads off to climb Mt. Rainier with his dog and doesn’t tell anyone but his best friend. Jessie must wrestle with burden Mark has left her with and decide what the best thing to do is. As Mark sets out to conquer the mountain, he finds unexpected things the trip brings up that he must confront to get at the honest truth.
Target Readers:
Contemporary Fiction Fans, Survival Story Fans, Friendship Story Fans, Readers studying Symbolism in Literature, Fans of Lyrical Writing, Middle Grade Readers
Mustaches for Maddie by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown
The story of a 12 year old girl with normal issues whose life is thrown upside down when she learns she has a brain tumor, and how her community rallies around her. Based on a true story of the authors' daughter.
I haven't read this one yet, mostly because it is constantly checked out by our middle school students. They LOVE this story.
Target Readers:
Contemporary Fiction Fans, Fantastic Community Story Fans, Biographical Fiction Fans, Middle Grade Readers
Stargazing by Jen Wang
Christine’s life is turned a little upside down when her parents let a family who needs a boost live in their back house. Moon and her mom are nice people, but Moon is very different from Christine. Christine is a little wary of Moon at first. Can she be friends with this girl? Should she be friends with her?
Without spoiling too much, I will say that one of the girls in this graphic novel ends up having pediatric cancer, and the author explains in a note in the back that this is based on her own childhood battle with cancer.
Target Readers:
Contemporary Fiction Fans, Graphic Novel Fans, Friendship Story Fans, Fans of Chinese-American Characters, Fans of Stories of Kids Who Don’t Feel Like They Fit In, Middle Grade Readers
Wink by Rob Harrell
The story of a Ross Maloy who has a rare type of eye cancer and is going through treatments while juggling normal middle school issues. Based on the author's own experiences.
This one is sitting on the top of my to read pile. I've heard great things about it.
Target Readers:
Contemporary Fiction Fans, Middle School Life Story Fans, Biographical Fiction Fans, Middle Grade Readers
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