The Great Katie Kate Tackles Questions About Cancer, by M. Maitland DeLand, MD. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press; 2010. $14.95.
This book is written to help children with cancer ask questions and communicate more freely and effectively with their parents and caregivers. The author, Dr DeLand, is a radiation oncologist whose practice for more than 30 years has been with women and children who have cancer. The author has also written children's books that deal with topics such as asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy.
The book is written like and illustrated as a children's book. The pictures are colorful and filled with energy. The central character is Suzy, who visits the doctor to learn why she has a lump on her leg and is told that she might have cancer. Suzy is soon visited by Katie Kate, who is there to answer her questions and help her understand what is happening. Katie Kate zooms in through the window looking much like a "super girl." Her other visitor is the Worry Wombat, a large, furry critter. The work that the Worry Wombat does is to cause people to worry and be afraid. Suzy learns that she can make the Worry Wombat shrink and disappear whenever she asks questions and is able to overcome her fear with facts.
The book then goes through educational content relevant to cancer that is discussed at the level of a young child. The illustrations are colorful and help to make the text content more interesting for a young child. For example, when Katie Kate explains about a blood test, she says that "it will feel like a pinch, and then the hurt will go away." This explanation enables Suzy to say that she is not afraid of tests anymore. Each time Suzy asks a question and understands the answer, the Worry Wombat gets smaller.
The key topics covered in the book are as follows: (1) how to talk to a child or parent about cancer; (2) what a child needs to know about x-ray films, blood tests, surgery, and radiation treatment; (3) why it is important to answer a child's questions and not to avoid them; (4) how the author has seen children live normal lives with a cancer diagnosis; (5) why children might be braver than adults; and (6) what being in a hospital means to a child and how to make the experience better.
The book is culturally appropriate and has both children and adults from a variety of ethnic groups. The book would be useful when a young child is diagnosed with cancer. Reading it to the child or letting the child learn to read the book could reduce the fear of the disease by providing some basic information.
-Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN
Editor, Family & Community Health