As a former English teacher and librarian, book talks were a staple in my classroom and library. I used to post my book talks and reviews on my educatorbarnes.com. Now, I am shifting them to my business page because we receive many book recommendation requests at Blazing Brilliance. For the book talks and book reviews I have on my personal website/portfolio, I will shift them to this page and categorize them for easy use.
A few years ago, I purchased the book There’s Something I Have to Tell You All Mommy Has Cancer by Towanna Hogue. Although I thought the title was too wordy, I was intrigued by the subject matter. Mommy Has Cancer should have been the title of this book. It is more direct and to the point.
Inside the book is a two-page introduction where the author shares that the story is based on her life. This was out of place when it came to the formatting of the book. This would have been better served as part of the book’s end matter in the form of an author’s note instead of an author’s introduction. Chapter books are more likely to have introductions and a preface, not children’s books.
The illustrations were beautiful; however, the characters’ clothing. If you remember the old Nickelodeon show Doug, there was an episode when he opened his closet, and every outfit was the same one. Many television cartoons have characters wearing the same clothes all the time. In a book, when the days change, so should the characters’ clothing. The main character wears the same outfit the entire book. The mom wore the same clothes in the hospital before her surgery.
Books are supposed to show, not tell. The author told you everything instead of letting dialogue and descriptive writing move the plot along. For example, the second half of the book says, “The medicine Mommy takes is very strong. It makes her feel sick.” Today, I won’t go into my rant about the overuse of the word very. To show and not tell, this could have been rewritten to say, “Mommy’s body hurts from the treatment. Sometimes, she vomits. Other times, she stays in bed. At times, she can hardly lift her head.” This is a better way to show what the medicine is doing instead of directly stating it is strong.
A bonus was the glossary and resources to learn more at the back of the book. I wish that any word in the glossary at the back of the book was bolded within the text, letting readers know there is a glossary in the back so they won’t find out about the glossary after they finish the book. The definition of surgery wasn’t correct. “Surgery – a doctor takes out some or all the body parts cancer affects.” This is specific to cancer surgery, not surgery in general. The vocabulary word should be changed to cancer surgery, or the definition should be adjusted to the proper one for surgery in general.
Overall, books about cancer featuring non-white characters are needed. Although this book’s subject matter is important, there are several areas that took away from the execution of this book.
Rating 3/5
| Recommended Grades | Preschool – 1 |
| Recommended Ages | 4-7 |
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