Bright Reads: Books About Cancer for Kids
By Aimee Barnes, Board President, Bright Spot Network
Books can be an incredibly helpful tool for talking to kids about cancer and the fears and emotions that surround it.
When I was diagnosed, we read my son Cancer Hates Kisses and Nowhere Hair. Not only did they help me broach the subject with him, they gave me some scaffolding for how to think about structuring my conversations with him about cancer.
In addition to “cancer books,” we also read a lot of books with my son that dealt more generally with big emotions like anger, fear, and anxiety. These also helped give us some age-appropriate language to use with my son about his feelings.
Books can be an incredibly helpful tool for talking to kids about cancer and the fears and emotions that surround it.
There are a fair number of children’s books out there dealing with cancer, but in my experience they vary widely in terms of quality, readability, and ability to actually hold my kids’ attention for more than a minute. So, we decided to read as many of them as possible and provide you with our reviews and a short list of books that were kid and parent approved.
We’ve kept the list pretty brief - in our experience, a couple of books on cancer is more than enough. Please keep in mind, the books that work for your family may differ from what worked for us, depending on your diagnosis, the age of your kids, their personality and temperament, and your family’s values and beliefs. We’ve tried to note where possible which books work for which ages, whether they are specific to a type of cancer or caregiver (e.g. there are many books focused on moms but few about dads), whether they are religious, etc.
Share your reviews to make this list stronger!
What books did you read to your kids? Were there books you found really helpful, or books that seemed inappropriate or triggering? We’d love to add your thoughts/reviews on any of these books to give other parents more context on what worked/didn’t work about them for you! We’d especially love to hear about books focused on dads, featuring people of color, and/or LGBTQ families, as we could find very few of these! Feel free to email contact@brightspotnetwork.org.
Request *free* books from us through Bright Reads!
As part of our Bright Reads Reads program, we will provide a selection of these recommended books free of charge to the children of parents going through cancer. Each family will also get a copy of A Tiny Boat at Sea - an excellent, concise resource for parents with age-appropriate examples for how to talk to kids about cancer. It’s probably the best resource I’ve found on the subject and definitely something I wish I’d read when I was first diagnosed.
You can request books for your kid(s) (or children of someone you know) by completing this request form.
Okay! Now on to the list!