Our Mom Has Cancer

Adrienne Ackermann | Abigail Ackermann

1 Best picture book about parental cancer
Many children's books about cancer in a parent treat it as movie disease: a convenient way to introduce mortality. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I needed a way to let my children know what they could expect as far as my therapy, and let them know what might happen emotionally.

This is by far the best of several children's picture books written about a parent with cancer. Because it is written and illustrated by two sisters, it conveys what kids want to know. It showed the passage of time during treatment, and it showed that people were loving and kind and hopeful in the midst of a rotten time.

This book is excellent, and I would recommend it to any parent who has been diagnosed with cancer as a way to open discussions with elementary-aged and younger children.

2 Two Thumbs Up!
I go to school at Village Elementry in Coronado. Adrienne and Abigail are the cusins of a kid in my class named Paul. They got to come to our school and read the book to us. I think it was very good. It really is based on a true story! The book was about there mom who had breast cancer. They even wrote a hat song in the story! I give the book two thumbs up!

3 From the Publisher:
When Abigail and Adrienne's mom told them she had cancer, they were afraid. But when the girls couldn't find any books that explained what might happen to their mother and what they might expect, they wrote one themselves.

They tell readers when their mother was tired during treatment, friends and family pitched in to help cook and to push her in her wheelchair. When chemotherapy made their mom's hair fall out, friends and family threw a hat party for her and honored her with an original song.

Their mom's hair has grown back, and Abigail and Adrienne have found that their family is closer than ever. The girls' story will show other youngsters that they are not alone in their experience with a loved one's cancer.