Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

Problems?
Ideas?
Suggestions?
Please email BudNotBuddy@aol.com

Thank You!

"I hate weird people. And poor people and sick people, for that matter. They all give me a bad feeling, like This Could Be You Instead of Me."
--Colt Trammel, the teenage main character in OUT OF ORDER by A.M. Jenkins

"Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy." --The Beatles

My mom, Catherine Mary Partington, was know to virtually everybody as Kitty, but the other favorite person of my childhood world always chose to affectionately call her Katrina. That other favorite person was Rexford Clifford Anthony Joseph Partington, my paternal grandfather.

As the oldest grandson on my father's side, I was afforded the birthright of spending dreamy weeks each year with Rex and my grandmother Mildred in their Tudor-style home with the beds of lilies-of-the valley and the concrete birdbath in the manicured backyard. That backyard adjoined Garden City's Hemlock Park, and I'd spend my days there orbiting around between the playground and games area of The Park and Rex's upstairs office with its lush, old oriental carpets, the ancient telephone screwed to the corner of the big desk (Pioneer One-four-one-nine-seven), the black antique Underwood typewriter, and walls of filled bookcases.

My grandfather taught me young about opening doors for women, buckling seatbelts (a decade before they were required), alphabetizing his sales brochures, and eating lobsters. He and Mom began giving me joint pep talks about attending college as soon as I hit first grade.

When I was in junior high, I was suddenly aware of Dad and Rex having brief, hurried, adult-feeling conversations each time we'd prepare to leave my grandparents' house after a Sunday of playing, eating, and watching TV. I'd pick up uncomfortably serious vibes from my father surrounding these quick talks that were filled with whispers and code words.

What they finally let me know was that Rex had cancer. The robust guy who could spend all afternoon splashing around in Long Island Sound with me suddenly shriveled up before my eyes and died before I could graduate high school.

"Everything Everything gives you cancer..." --Joe Jackson

Cancer still scares me. Shari and I have both lost our moms to It during the past five years. Everyone, from rock stars to relatives, old friends to infamous assassins get It. Sometimes, even kids.

"All I wanted to do was sneak back to my old desk and pretend that nothing had ever happened.
"Going back to school after being treated for cancer wasn't like the first day after summer vacation. I didn't think any teachers would ask me to write an essay on what I did on my chemotherapy vacation."

Hawaiian teenager Rell DeMello has survived It. Across the ocean in the San Francisco hospital where she'd lived and had been treated over the past year, there are kids--including Rell's best friend--who are dying from It. But Rell is counting the eyelashes which have grown back, adjusting her wig, and returning to the high school where everyone knows what she has been up to since leaving unexpectedly.

" 'Good luck, Sweetheart,' Mom yelled from the car.
"I looked back. She waved and threw me a kiss like she was the grand marshall of the Mother Love Parade.
" 'Smile, Rell,' I told myself. 'Just smile.'
Kailua High School's two-story building looked like a towering castle. I climbed the steps, working my way through swarms of kids getting in a last blast of a CD or a last grinding kiss. I hugged my backpack to my chest to keep anyone from bumping into me.
"It was like they were in a fast-forward video and I was in slow motion. I got to the door, put my hand on the handle, turned and walked down the steps and straight to McDonald's, where I spent the rest of the day."

In a world of friends and boys and papers due Thursday, Rell is dealing with thoughts and feelings that her Hawaiian friends just cannot understand, powerful dreams that she dare not share with them, and the fear that It will show up again, or will soon kill L.B. back in San Francisco.

"...And I'll be better, I'll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able..."

Another complication of Rell's moving forward is the fact that:

"I was an only child--the only one who could be blamed for drawing cows on the wall or feeding peanut butter to the dog. No brothers, no sisters, no one to distract Mom and Dad from me or my cancer."

This makes things even worse for Rell when her mom becomes a control freak and her dad fruitlessly demands that assurance that his kid won't have to face It again.

" 'Tell her, David,' Mom said.
"Dad turned down the stove and put the spatula down. 'Your mother read about a veterinarian who quit taking care of dogs because he had Hodgkin's disease.'
" 'So?'
" 'Having a dog may be a serious health risk for you.' He sounded apologetic.
" 'You must be kidding?' I turned to Mom.
" 'Rell, you have to be aware of the risks,' Mom said.
" 'I cannot believe this.' I looked to Dad for help.
" 'Hear your mother out on this, Rell,' he said.
"I threw my hands up in the air.
" 'Dogs carry a virus,' she said. 'It's the virus that's the concern. It can kill you,' Mom said.
" 'Bacon can kill me. Eggs can kill me.'
" 'Rell, you don't know what having a dog in the house, letting him sleep with you, having him lick you can do. You don't know what you're risking,' Mom said."

STARING DOWN THE DRAGON is painfully realistic. The manner in which it is written with an abundance of dialogue gives the story an immediacy that flings the reader into the seat of the roller coaster that is Rell's life.

"No one knows for sure
Something might come along
That'll save the day and help her out
And fix whatever's wrong." --Peter Alsop

A minor quibble with the book is that the occasional error in punctuation makes you think you're reading an advance copy, but such errors are easily forgiven in light of the strength of the story Rell shares with us.

Knowledge often brings understanding and compassion and acceptance to that which was previously unknown. Readers of STARING DOWN THE DRAGON will certainly gain an understanding of the disease's psychological effects on those suffering from or recovering from it, and Its effects on those around them.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com