Best of
Illness

2004

Small Knots


Kelli Russell Agodon - 2004
    Small Knots is a tender and terrifying collection of poems that maps the development of breast cancer, celebrates the family and life's daily small joys, and meditates on what connects us to the world.

Remember, Grandma?


Laura Langston - 2004
    She wears sneakers with yellow laces and laughs very loud. They go for walks, sing songs together, and gather apples to make Grandma's special mile-high apple pie. But lately Grandma gets mixed up. More and more she can't remember. She forgets the way home and sometimes she doesn't even know Margaret. "She still loves you," says Margaret's mother, "even if she can't remember your name." Warm and accessible, "Remember, Grandma?" is an important book that will strike a chord with many readers. For families who have a relative facing memory loss, it may trigger important conversations. And for all children with aging family members, it provides gentle reassurance about the love within families that endures even when memory does not.

The Empty Room: Surviving the Loss of a Brother or Sister at Any Age


Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn - 2004
    Her parents explain that he went to the hospital for a while. "A while" turns out to be eight years in a plastic bubble, where he dies of a rare autoimmune disease at age seventeen. "The Empty Room" is DeVita-Raeburn's unflinching, often haunting recollection of life with Ted, woven into a larger exploration of the enormous -- and often unacknowledged -- impact of a sister's or brother's death on remaining siblings.With an inspired blend of life experience, journalistic acumen, and research training, DeVita-Raeburn draws on interviews of more than two hundred survivors to render a powerful portrait of the range of conditions and emotions, from withdrawal to guilt to rage, that attend such loss. Finding little in professional literature, she realizes that those who suffer are the experts. And in the end, it is DeVita-Raeburn and her experts who present a larger, more complex understanding of the sibling bond, the lifelong impact of the severing of that bond, and the tools needed to heal and move forward."The Empty Room" is a fascinating literary hybrid in which Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn seamlessly fuses deeply affecting remembrance with a pragmatic, lucidly written exploration of the healing journey.

What's Happening to Grandpa?


Maria Shriver - 2004
     Kate has always adored her grandpa's storytelling, but lately he's been repeating the same stories again and again. One day, he even forgets Kate's name. Her mother's patient explanations open Kate's eyes to what so many of the elderly must confront: Alzheimer's disease and other forms of memory loss. Determined to support her grandfather, Kate explores ways to help him--and herself--cope by creating a photo album of their times together, memories that will remain in their hearts forever.

Eating Gluten-Free with Emily: A Story for Children with Celiac Disease


Bonnie J. Kruszka - 2004
    What is gluten? Why can't I eat cake, cookies, and chicken nuggets like everyone else? What do I tell my friends? Answers to these and many other questions are provided in this book. Written by the mother of a child with celiac disease, who also has the disease herself, this book offers a reassuring look at celiac disease in language that a child can easily understand. This fictional story is based on the real-life experiences many newly diagnosed children face. Five-year-old Emily and her parents wonder why she's not feeling well. Her belly is swollen, and she feels moody and sick. A trip to the doctor raises some concerns and further tests show that Emily has celiac disease. Emily talks about what food she can and cannot eat, how her Mom buys special gluten-free food, and the need to stay on a gluten-free diet at restaurants, birthday parties, friends' houses, school, and camp. With its light-hearted, colourful illustrations, the book helps children to see that having celiac disease is not so scary after all.Emily acknowledges that having celiac disease is sometimes tough, but talking about her feelings with her mom always makes her feel better. She knows that celiac disease is only part of who she is -- she also likes to jump rope, paint, tell jokes, and pick flowers! This book's positive message will be a huge boost to children with celiac disease, especially those who have been recently diagnosed. Ages 3 to 7 years.

The Stuff of Life


Karen Karbo - 2004
    Neither of them is exactly cut out for the job. As Dick Karbo's disease progresses, Karen finds herself sometimes the responsible adult, sometimes a stubborn teenager all over again. But in the end, what father and daughter discover more than anything is the love and the toughness that makes them alike.