"In 2008, 17-year-old Stokke was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive, and fatal form of leukemia. Stokke's blog, a detailed account of her life before and after the diagnosis, drew many readers in her native Norway and became a bestseller in book form, published shortly after her death in late 2009. Stokke's emotional 15-month journey offers candid descriptions of endless cycles of chemotherapy, her physical pain, and frustrations ('It's incredibly tough to experience defeat after defeat,' she writes. 'When will all this stop?'), as well as accounts of happier moments, including attending concerts and spending time with friends and family. Stokke's photography and poetry appear throughout, and her blog entries are contextualized by footnotes explaining key details about leukemia, its treatment, and Norwegian life. Supportive notes from Stokke's family members and blog readers are also included, but it's Stokke's openness and honesty that are the chief draw; readers will feel as though they have truly come to know her. While there can be a repetitiveness to both the entries and the supplemental commentary, it's a rare, valuable window into life with a terminal illness. "—Publishers Weekly
In 2008, 17-year-old Stokke was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive, and fatal form of leukemia. Stokke’s blog, a detailed account of her life before and after the diagnosis, drew many readers in her native Norway and became a bestseller in book form, published shortly after her death in late 2009. Stokke’s emotional 15-month journey offers candid descriptions of endless cycles of chemotherapy, her physical pain, and frustrations (“It’s incredibly tough to experience defeat after defeat,” she writes. “When will all this stop?”), as well as accounts of happier moments, including attending concerts and spending time with friends and family. Stokke’s photography and poetry appear throughout, and her blog entries are contextualized by footnotes explaining key details about leukemia, its treatment, and Norwegian life. Supportive notes from Stokke’s family members and blog readers are also included, but it’s Stokke’s openness and honesty that are the chief draw; readers will feel as though they have truly come to know her. While there can be a repetitiveness to both the entries and the supplemental commentary, it’s a rare, valuable window into life with a terminal illness. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)¦
In August 2008, at age seventeen, Regine Stokke was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of leukemia. The blog she maintained about her battle with cancer attracted a huge following, as she candidly chronicled the rollercoaster of diagnosis and treatment, hope and despair, rage and bleak acceptance, which culminated in her death in December 2009. Published first in her native Norway as a bestselling book and now translated into English for an American audience, this collection of Regine's blog posts (with selected replies from her thousands of readers) supplemented with her poems and photographs (exhibited at several photography festivals in the last year of her brief life) make for a moving reading experience. The blog format allows us to feel part of Regine's desperate determination to find a cure even as we are already aware of its ultimate outcome. Despite her unusual eloquence for a teen writer, Regine frankly shares reactions any ordinary human being would be likely to have in her extraordinary circumstances, as when she admits, "I wish someone other than me had gotten this cancer instead." It is impossible not to be stirred to follow Regine's advice, "You should not wait for life to get better...try instead to look at what you have in the here and now, and enjoy it." Few of us are able to sustain this focus on the immediate moment, but Regine's story testifies to the importance of trying to remember to cherish life while we have it. Reviewer: Claudia Mills, Ph.D.
Children's Literature - Claudia Mills
This is a biography of a Norwegian teenager stricken with an aggressive form of leukemia in 2008. Even her physician had tears in his eyes when he gave her family the diagnosis of AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). The book was published four months after she passed away at age 18 on December 3, 2009, and quickly became a bestseller in her native Norway. The publisher at Zest came across her book last year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and knew immediately it needed to be translated and published in English. It is Zest's first title in their new "True Stories" line. Regine's insight into this disease and how she dealt with it were originally shown in her blogs. She shared her ups and downs—and hopes and dreams—from her teen perspective as the disease progressed. She was also a tireless advocate for other cancer patients. Her blogs are supplemented in the book with other unpublished texts, photographs, and remembrances from her friends and family. A list of family members and friends gives the reader insight into the family dynamics. Several pages in the front of the book explain leukemia and the treatments for this devastating disease. The publisher had participated in a fund-raising bike ride around Lake Tahoe for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society before Zest found the book. Zest Books subsequently made a donation to this Society in honor of Regine and her family. Reviewer: Annie Laura Smith
Children's Literature - Annie Laura Smith
Confronting a terminal diagnosis is an unfathomable concept for most individuals. Doing so at a young age is even more mind blowing. Regine Stokke was seventeen when she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of leukemia. At the time of the diagnosis, she was a typical teenage girl: artistic, dramatic, swept up in her friends and typical teenage interests, not at all thinking of the finality of life. When she was diagnosed, her world suddenly turned inside-out. An avid writer and photographer, she decided to start a blog about her journey with her disease as a coping mechanism. Her blog quickly garnered nationwide attention in Norway as readers began to follow her roller-coaster ride through bone marrow biopsies, chemotherapy, blood poisoning, infections, brief improvements, relapse, and, finally, death. At an age when mortality was the last thing on her mind, Regine had to come to terms with the end of her life. She was not religious, and had no concrete notion what existed beyond life's end. Instead, she focused on the present throughout most of her blog. The attention her blog received raised support for others suffering from her disease and other forms of cancer, and sparked an increase in bone marrow donors. Her photography was noticed and exhibited on Facebook with proceeds going towards cancer treatment. Aside from all of her accomplishments, what makes her blog exceptional is her tenacity and unbelievable maturity. Dying is honorable by its very nature and mystery. Regine deserves honor for her tenacity and maturity in the face of extraordinary suffering. Her blog proclaims the importance of living and appreciating life at a time when very few do. Her reflections on life itself are astounding and educational. There is no tale of end-of-life romance or melodrama in Regine's memoir, just an honest portrayal of a child struggling to come to terms with something every human being will one day face. What makes her memoir so valuable is the message that she keeps coming back to... "Face your fear. Accept your war. It is what it is." In other words..."Live." Reviewer: Victoria Vogel
Gr 8 Up—At age 17, Stokke was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Once the initial shock of diagnosis wore off, she was drawn to blogging as a way to document how she was living with the disease. With a moving and honest voice, she takes readers along on her journey from diagnosis to despair to acceptance. Original photos, artwork, and poetry capture her fluctuating state of mind through the course of the memoir. Her straight talk about her dire situation inspired many fellow Norwegians to become blood and bone-marrow donors and raised awareness of the need to support and engage those living with terminal illnesses. Although the inclusion of hundreds of blog entries does result in a lengthy text, readers will find themselves rooting for Regine until the end.—Colleen S. Banick, Westport Public Schools, CT
"My ultimate dream for this blog is that it will be published as a book after my death," wrote Norwegian teenager Stokke, who blogged about her experience living with leukemia. Regine's blog, which became popular in Norway, was first published as a book by a Norwegian press in 2009 and is here translated into English. In direct, emotionally open prose, Regine describes the details of cancer treatment, her optimism and frustrations, her excitement about rock music, and her relationships with friends and family. Regine's photographs, from self-portraits to nature shots to pictures of rock stars, are printed in full color, sometimes overlaid with song lyrics or original poetry. Her blog posts begin in fall 2008 and end with "The Last Autumn" of 2009, with concluding remarks from friends and loved ones in the final "After Regine" section. Regine's voice is matter-of-fact and honest, with a tone that is occasionally raw ("I wish someone other than me had gotten this cancer instead"). Selections from the blog's many comments, which appear after some of the posts, sometimes become repetitious, but the posts themselves are brief and varied enough to stay engaging. Short, accessible footnotes provide context for readers unfamiliar with cancer treatment or Norwegian culture. A heartfelt and visually appealing window into Regine's last year. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)
