[Childrens Book] ☆ The Goodbye Cancer Garden PDF by Janna Matthies Ô eBook or Kindle ePUB free

This is a pretty good one, maybe for the grade school set. It does a good job of showing the idea of everyone helping out, and the fact that recovery takes a while. Good illustrations! :) 32 This is the story of how one family copes with a mother's breast cancer. The doctor tells the children their mother will be better at pumpkin time, so they and their parents grow a garden and chart their mother's recovery according to the growth of the pumpkin. I love that cancer is portrayed as something that can be beaten, and the focus is on coping and getting through a difficult time, rather than the sadness and loss that cancer does sometimes bring about. There are many families out there who could benefit from sharing a book like this. Hardcover Lovely illustrations, inspirational, and positive. This was a realistic story showing what fighting breast cancer as a family looks like, including some great suggestions for support and coping. The Goodbye Cancer Garden A well- illustrated, succinctly written story, full of wisdom and facts that will not frighten child readers. Hopeful and positive, I would recommend this book to a mother with school-age children and a case of breast cancer which heals.
32 We read a wide range of children's books.
This book was really important - I'm thinking - due to the idea of doing a family project to help everyone through difficult life times. And every family will face difficult times at some point. I'd say 'even if not cancer' - but in Canada 50% of women will get cancer in their life time, so it's really not a rare occurrence these days... 32

After Mom and Dad tell Janie and Jeffrey that Mom has Cancer, the whole family goes to the doctor to ask questions. Is Mom better yet? Jeffrey asked. Not yet, she said. But we're working very hard to make her better-probably by pumpkin time. That gave Janie an idea...the family plants a vegetable garden. As the garden grows, Mom's treatment progresses...surgery, chemo, head-shaving and other side effects, radiation...and when it's all done, there are healthy pumpkins and a healthly Mom! The Goodbye Cancer Garden

I saw this book waiting to be checked in, and I decided, based on the name and cover, that I had to read it. My mother has gone through breast cancer twice, 23 years apart. She had a mastectomy in 1991. In 2014, the cancer came back for her remaining breast, and she had that one removed as well. I've been aware of the struggles (physical and emotional, etc.) brought on by breast cancer since I was 21. I already have a plan-in-place, should it happen to me. So when I see a children's book about breast cancer, I'm intrigued.

This was such a lovely, positive, uplifting story!!! I really relished all the aspects about it--the pain and sometimes sadness the mother endured, the way family, friends, and neighbors pitched in, and the joy of coming out on the other side! It was all so refreshing and told in a way that, I think, would make a child ready to help their mother take on that challenge. Janna Matthies This is an incredible book to help a child understand the process of a parent undergoing treatment for cancer. The two children are involved in every step of the process at a level appropriate for their age, including meeting with their mother's doctor to ask questions. As their mother goes through the process of treatment, from surgery to chemotherapy, to losing her hair and radiation, the family decides to grow a garden in their back yard.

I would highly recommend this book to any family facing the tough issues to libraries in a therapist's office and the physician. 080752994X A family plants, and tends to, a vegetable garden together while the mother undergoes treatment for breast cancer. They share the harvest with their neighbors who helped out when the mother was ill. At the end of the story, the mother is done with cancer treatment and her hair is growing back. The daughter who is narrating sounds too adult, especially her dialogue. Lovely illustrations and a hopeful message about a challenging topic.
Childrens This uplifting story of a family of four [Mom, Dad, Janie (the narrator) and Jeffrey], coping with the mom’s struggle against breast cancer, is perfect for kids. Even when the book takes on hard parts of the battle (and kudos to the author for doing so in an honest but non-scary manner), the not-so-nice aspects are painted in a positive light:

In April Mom started chemotherapy, a super-strong medicine that destroys leftover bits of cancer. When she felt too sick to eat dinner, Dad made her applesauce. When she was too tired to get out of bed, I showed her seed catalogs and Jeffrey drew her pictures. When the doctor said soon the chemo would make her hair fall out, Mom said, ‘Let’s have a head-shaving party!’”

The author, drawing upon her own experiences, structured the story around her decision to plant a garden to use as a “timeline” for her recovery. As she stated in an interview:

…on the day we planted carrot seeds, we discussed that I’d be done with chemo by the time we were eating those carrots.”

Other “markers” included tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkins. A very cute passage, in which the family celebrates the end of chemo with a picnic featuring homegrown vegetables, shows a joyous group with this dialogue:

‘Did you grow all this yourself?’ my friend Nikki asked.

‘Not everything,’ Jeffrey said. ‘We don’t know how to grow cream cheese yet.’”

At the beginning of their mom’s treatment, the doctor told the kids:

…we’re working very hard to make her better â€" probably by pumpkin time.”

As the book ends, Mom is finally done with her treatment, and it is mid-October. And deep underneath big vines in the garden the children spot two perfect pumpkins and shout out their discovery to their parents:

Mom blinked away happy tears. ‘How could we have forgotten?’ she said. The four of us pulled at the pumpkins with all our might and landed in a big heap, right in the middle of the Goodbye Cancer Garden.”

Evaluation: This is a very nice book about family love and support, no matter what the issue. English This was a well-executed story for young children that explores the difficulties of dealing with mom's breast cancer. While the book touches vaguely upon the timeline of chemo and radiation therapies, the loss of hair, and aches in bones from the procedures, it mostly reinforces the message of positive encouragement and sense of community (neighbors helping along with cleaning and such), sense of family, and finding something to look forward to with the children while mom undergoes her treatment.

It's a simple book for young readers with a heartwarming message of hope.

Well done! Childrens