Tag: books

Helpful books

Posted hopePosted in Helpful resources

As parents, we found the following books to be quite informative and helpful.

  • Childhood Leukemia, by Nancy Keene. This book might be a bit overwhelming, but I would recommend it if you are looking for an overview of the entire treatment, some side effects to look out for, useful tips etc. I especially found the excerpts from various parents to be very helpful. For example, after reading this book, I requested the nurses and doctors for EMLA cream before each port access or injection. About the book:
    “This most complete parent guide covers not only detailed and precise medical information about leukemia and the various treatment options, but also day-to-day practical advice on how to cope with procedures, hospitalization, family and friends, school, social and financial issues, communication, feelings, and, if therapy is not successful, the difficult issues of death and bereavement. Woven among the medical details and the practical advice are the voices of more than 150 parents and children who have lived with leukemia and its treatments. As many parents have already found, advice from “veteran” parents can be a lifeline.”
  • The emperor of all maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. If you want to know about the history of cancer and how some of the drugs we use today were developed, you will find this book to be very engaging. I didn’t know oncologists could write so well! About the book:
    “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and now a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.”

Our kid loved these books, that gave hope and courage, while also being fun to read.

  • The jester who lost his jingle, by David Saltzman. Our kid developed a special connection with this book on laughter, especially after she learned that the author (and illustrator) was himself a cancer patient. She enjoyed reading both the English and Spanish versions. About the book:
    “David wrote and illustrated The Jester as his senior project at Yale University before his death from Hodgkin’s disease in 1990. His desire was to give The Jester, with its upbeat and hopeful message, to children facing serious challenges.”
  • Berenstain Bears book series, by Stan and Jan Berenstain. A lovely set of books for children on various topics ranging from watching too much TV, eating junk food, bad dreams, playing fair, being brave and kind, speaking the truth. As mentioned in this post, our kid loved to read and re-read them! About the book:
    “Stan and Jan Berenstain published the first Berenstain Bears book in 1962, and the series has gone on to capture the hearts and minds of children across generations and across the globe. In the 50+ years since “The Big Honey Hunt,” the Bear family has grown from three to five members; the Berenstain Bears have been translated into over a dozen languages; and over 300 million books have been sold worldwide.”
  • Wherever you are, my love will find you, by Nancy Tillman. This came as a beautiful gift around Christmas time. About the book:
    “Love is the greatest gift we have to give our children. It’s the one thing they can carry with them each and every day. If love could take shape it might look something like these heartfelt words and images from the inimitable Nancy Tillman. Here is a book to share with your loved ones, no matter how near or far, young or old, they are.”

Books are a true loyal friend…

Posted hopePosted in In love with books

During the induction phase, amidst all the chaos, our daughter cheered up when she saw a book with her name on it. The book was about a young kid who was a refugee. Although his life was hard, he loved helping his friends and family. One day, he found a pair of magic eyeglasses through which he could see sparks around some people. Curious to learn about them, he later discovered that whenever people helped without expecting anything in return, these sparks appeared magically. The boy was thrilled and eventually became a spark collector, who’ld help everyone around, and use the sparks to brighten the hearts of those in need…

Our kid loved this story. She would read this book again and again, especially during the port accesses, dressing changes, or other medical rituals that scared her. It had a strange, calming effect on her. She wasn’t reading much except for this book…

When we transitioned back home after one month at the hospital, she had frequent violent and emotional meltdowns from the steroids, trauma of hospitalization, hair loss etc. The doctors insisted on setting and following the same rules for acceptable behavior as we would if she were normal and off-treatment.

All that sounds good in principle, but how do you set and enforce rules for a kid whose life is already severely restricted?

Books to the rescue! We started reading toddler books like “Little dinos don’t yell”, “Calm down time”, “Little monkey calms down”, “Little dinos don’t hit”. These books gently reminded her of acceptable behavior, e.g., take a deep breath, count 1-2-3, go to a cool down spot, play with stuffed toys, read a favorite book, sing a quiet song, hug us and discuss her feelings with us. We also made up funny songs with these rules, and sang them to help her remember good ways to cope with the stress…

We had an aha moment when we discovered the first Berenstain Bears book. Her home school teacher brought a couple from the library, and our kid loved it. We ordered the full set of 30 odd books. The bear family was fun. The bear cubs ran into similar challenges like us — watching too much TV; eating junk food; forgetting manners; learning to be brave, kind, respectful, speaking the truth; avoiding gimmies; playing fair. We started by reading one book every night. She fell in love with these books. She was so amused with the book, “The Berenstain bears forget their manners”, that she read it to us over 3 times in just a day. We even tried making a set of golden rules for our family 😉

A fun facet is that most of these books come with stickers. As seen in this post, our kid loved stickers. After reading each book, she’ld pick a sticker and paste it in her chart. She loved these books and stickers so much, that sometimes she would read 2-3 books in one night!

Upon finishing 30 Berenstain bear books, she was mighty thrilled to earn a golden trophy sticker. Beyond improving her reading skills, more importantly for us, these books were a fun way to reinforce good habits and values. Indeed, we started seeing a gradual improvement in her attitude. We owe a lot to the Berenstain Bears family 🙂

It was time to try chapter books. Since this was a significant step up from the picture books she was reading, we incentivized her with a golden trophy sticker for each chapter book that she completed. She received a couple of Fancy Nancy chapter books as gifts around Christmas time. She liked the books on Super Sleuth, and Soccer Mania. We then experimented with more books, on ponies, princesses etc. She’s now reading Charlotte’s web and loves it. It’s a bigger book, and is taking us much longer to read, but she’s enjoying it so far.

Like Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” who loved to read books, our kid has now fallen in love with books, and finds the much needed comfort and room for imagination. Indeed, books are a true and loyal friend!