Excessive verbiage mars novel of illness

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EXCESSIVE VERBIAGE MARS NOVEL OF ILLNESS

January 25, 1993

Mother, Help Me Live

Author: Lurlene McDaniel.

Pages: 136.

Price: $3.50.

Publisher: Bantam.

Mother, Help Me Live is the story of 15-year-old Sarah McGreggor, who is fighting a battle with leukemia. I was drawn to this book because I thought it would be the story of Sarah's search for a cure. My thoughts were wrong.

Even though the book gave an idea of what a leukemia patient goes through, I found the novel boring. The story was lost in a maze of adjectives.

At age 10, Sarah fights the battle with leukemia, going through chemotherapy until age 13. When she goes into remission, her doctor says that if she stays well for five years, he could declare her cured.

Two years later, however, the illness returns.

As Sarah struggles to find a cure, I struggled to reach the last adjective:

Too many words

"Her father's gentle touch made Sarah's hostility vanish like water down a drain. The burden of her hurt and anger had grown heavy and made her miserable. Sarah turned her face into her dad's chest and allowed herself to cry. Surrounded by his embrace, she felt comforted, much as she had when she'd been a small child, running to him when she got hurt. After a few moments, she pulled away and looked at him, then turned to her mother. She knew that now was the time to tell them about the One Last Wish letter and check. `I have something to show you both,' she said. `It's up in my room. I'll bring it down for you to see.' "

Sarah's search for a cure is not believable. For example, Sarah spent time in a hotel, drifting in and out of sleep. The author only told about what Sarah hears when she is awake and left out the most important part _ what the people say while she is asleep.

The author describes in detail Sarah's need to tell someone about her problems, but didn't include that person in the plot.

I would not recommend this book for 7- to 12-year-olds, but to teen-agers who like descriptive novels.

If you are interested in reading other books by Lurlene McDaniel, she has also written:

Too Young to Die, Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever, Somewhere Between Life and Death, Time to Let Go, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, When Happily Ever After Ends, Mourning Song, and Someone Dies, Someone Lives.

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