You Shouldn't Have to Say Good-Bye

My daughter has a reading assignment for school in which an adult recommends a book, and both the adult and child read the book an reflect on their thoughts. I've held onto this old yellowed paperback for years because it held sentimental value to me. This was the first book that ever made me cry.

Re-reading this as an adult (and decades after it was written) it's interesting that while some elements are timeless (the pain of losing a parent), other parts of the book are very dated (making fun of an overweight classmate, for example).

This is a book written for middle grades, so it's unfair to judge it by adult standards. What resonated strongly with me in 5th grade, seems clunky and unemotional now. My daughter and I haven't had the show more book discussion yet, but in quickly asking her about it, the book didn't move her as much as it did for me when I was her age. show less

I first read this book in about 4th or 5th grade and loved it. I would draw a bath and grab this book and reread it, crying, laughing, and crying some more. I loved it so much that I put it on our class/community library for others to discover and love. Of course, someone didn't bring it back and it took me years to find my own copy again. But in the meantime I would check it out from the library over and over, even into my 20s.

This is a children's book that features a young girl dealing with her mother's cancer and eventual death.

Sarah's mother is diagnosed with incurable melanoma. The only factor in the book which dates it, and sets it apart from the New Zealand experience, is Sarah's unfamiliarity with melanoma. Sarah goes through most of the stages of anticipatory grief, including denial. Sarah's mother dies late Christmas Eve, at home, with Sarah and her father present. Sarah's mother leaves Sarah a notebook with everything she felt Sarah needed to know.

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