Editorial Review

The Essentials: When Parents Get Sick
By Julia Smith.

In recent years, we’ve noticed an influx of books that portray children dealing with having a sick parent. The emotional and practical demands of having a loved one with a mental or physical illness are complex, and these middle-grade novels take nuanced looks at kid characters finding inner strength and external support to weather unforeseen health crises.

Auma’s Long Run. By Eucabeth Odhiambo. 2017. Carolrhoda, $17.99 (9781512427844). Gr. 6–8.

Auma dreams of winning a high-school track scholarship that will take her out of her Kenyan village; however, when her father grows seriously ill with AIDS, she must decide whether to continue her schooling or work to feed her family. In this gut-wrenching look at the 1990s AIDS epidemic, Odhiambo flawlessly weaves Kenyan culture with preteen problems.