"The Goodbye Cancer Garden" was beautiful, well done, and uplifting. It is written from the perspective of a little girl whose mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. It follows the family through the seasons and also through her cancer treatment. It starts with winter and her diagnoses, then into spring with surgery, summer with chemo, fall with radiation, and into October with a cancer free diagnoses. When the doctor was explaining the treatment to the children, she said their mother would be cancer free by the time pumpkins would be growing. The daughter had a great idea to grow a garden so they could follow her progress through the pumpkin growing! As someone who has gone through a parent's cancer treatment, the idea of a garden is perfect. It gives the family a distraction and something to turn their attention towards when it all becomes too overwhelming. This book mentions the recovery after surgery and the mother having some "bad days" but I feel that it is sugar coated for even the smoothest cancer journey. This book would be good to read to someone who has a positive diagnoses or to uplift spirits but it doesn't let in on the pain and suffering, physically and emotionally. ( )

This story is about a girl and her mother's journey of diagnosis of cancer and treatment. While the mother is receiving chemotherapy treatments, the family decides to plant pumpkin seeds to follow along the duration of treatment since they will be done around the same time.

Age: 4-8
Source: Book was used for strategy instruction: Synthesizing for Adv Lang and Literacy Methods Class at Pierce College

A mother is told she has cancer. The family made a goal to plant a garden and by the time the pumpkins grow the mother will be done with her chemo for her cancer.

Age- 4+
Source- Puyallup Public Library

A mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the whole family goes to the doctor to find out what is going on. The doctor explains that her mother will have to undergo radiation treatments and will be complete about pumpkins are ready to be harvested, the children got an idea of how to track the progress of their mother's progress- make a garden. The whole community comes together, they feast in the garden then when treatment is done their make pumpkin bread and seeds.

Ages: 4-8
Source: Personal Collection

This book was absolutely wonderful. I would recommend this book to all families. A lot of people are affected by cancer and this book talks about the struggle in a very positive and soothing manner.

I don't know if I would share this book with an entire class but I would recommend it to students who are struggling with the concept of cancer. ( )