The Lemonade Club

The Lemonade Club, written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco, is a story based from true life, specifically Polacco's daughter, Traci, when her best friend, Marilyn, gets Leukemia. The teacher of the two girls has a basket on her desk full of lemons, so that when kids have a bad say, she tells them that lemons may be sour, but then you can make lemonade. So when Marilyn finds out she had cancer, her classmates all group together to make lemonade out of the seemingly impossible situation. Obviously this would be a good book to talk to kids about cancer and illness of loved ones, but I worry that the ending was too perfect. I know it is a true story and all, but after losing my father last year to cancer, it seems too perfect an ending for a diagnoses that ends hundreds of others lives every year. I think that any kid who has ever gone through this disease before will know that things don't always go that perfectly and smoothly, that some times it's scary, and all to often, it ends in tragedy. I remember a kid from my elementary school who had cancer in Kindergarten, he preferred to leave that detail of his life out of conversation. I don't blame him, that's a huge obstacle for a small child to try and overcome, especially during his first year of formal education. I think I would use this books to talk to kids about issues of illness and death of loved ones, but I would want to be very clear that things don't always go as smoothly in real life as they did in the book, and then have a real and honest conversation about death and dying. It's a difficult topic in general to talk about with kids, but I think if it's one that needs to be talked about, then it should be talked about and the adults should be ready for any questions they might have, kids will surprise you if you give them the chance.