Ways To Live Forever

by Sally Nicholls

Overview

From award-winning author Sally Nicholls, her debut novel about a boy's last months with leukemia.

1. My name is Sam.
2. I am eleven years old.
3. I collect stories and fantastic facts.
4. I have leukemia.
5. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead.

Living through the final stages of leukemia, Sam collects stories, questions, lists, and pictures that create a profoundly moving portrait of how a boy lives when he knows his time is almost up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545365796
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

Editorial Reviews

This year's answer to 2007's Before I Die, this first novel written by a 23-year-old Brit likewise features a young narrator with incurable cancer-and, while it doesn't entirely escape the conventions of the dying-child novel, it skirts easy sentiment to confront the hard questions head-on, intelligently and realistically and with an enormous range of feeling. Sam, facing his third recurrence of leukemia at the age of 11, keeps a journal, and among his entries are facts, questions and lists: "Questions Nobody Answers No. 1 - How do you know that you've died?"; "True facts about coffins"; "Why does God make kids get ill?" Sam starts out with a buddy, another terminally ill boy who shares Sam's sense of humor and who with Sam is taught by a visiting teacher ("No dying at the table, Felix," she tells him in the opening scene when he is mocking melodramatic portrayals of "the poor, frail child... struggling bravely"). How Sam and his family cope with Felix's death and Sam's own inevitable decline-ultimately, with humor, grace and generosity of spirit-will bring on tears; more impressively, it will also help readers address the hard questions for themselves. Ages 9-12. (Sept.)

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Publishers Weekly

This gut-wrenching novel is told through the eyes of eleven-year-old Sam who is suffering his third, and final, bout of leukemia. He and his slightly older, also terminal friend have a strong and complementary relationship. Their repartee is humorous and matter-of-fact, albeit sometimes macabre. It's an upbeat break from Sam's relationship with his family which is, realistically, more depressing. His father is in denial, wanting to believe that Sam is getting better because he is not suffering from the side effects of the chemotherapy. Of course, Sam is no longer on chemotherapy because it has been ineffective in fighting the cancer. Sam's mother does a wonderful job of trying to stay positive but, understandably, dissolves into tears periodically. His little sister is jealous of all the attention Sam receives. Sam's questions about death and his hopes about what can still be done before the end of his short life are heartfelt and believable. Eventually, Sam's father comes around, and there is certainly a feeling that all are coming to terms with the inevitable. Probably a great help to those who want to better understand such circumstances, this book will be a difficult read for more sensitive readers. Reviewer: Kathryn Erskine

Children's Literature - Kathryn Erskine

Gr 4-7

Eleven-year-old Sam knows that he is dying from leukemia. He has decided to write a book that includes his thoughts on the matter as well as his lists and his questions, particularly those that no one ever answers like, "Why does God let kids get ill?" Through his writing, Nicholls has drawn a portrait of a family coping with a child's terminal disease. Readers meet Sam's mother, father, and younger sister, each of whom is dealing in a different way with his illness. Well researched and beautifully written, the book is equal to the best of children's literature about death and dying, Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia (HarperCollins, 1977) and Deborah Wiles's Each Little Bird That Sings (Harcourt, 2005). Sam knows that his father rushes off to work each day because he cannot admit to himself that his son is dying. He knows that his mother keeps Ella home from school during an unexpected snowstorm in March so they can have one last sledding day together. But, he does not verbalize this knowledge, just as his parents and Ella don't speak of his death. Sam is a child whom readers would want as a friend and he will be missed when the book is done.-Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD

School Library Journal

"If I grow up," 11-year-old Sam informs readers, "I'm going to be a scientist." He says "if" because he has acute lymphoblastic leukemia and knows he probably won't. With the encouragement of his tutor, he starts to write a bit about himself, then more, until he is using his writing to sort out his death. Interspersed with Sam's lists, questions and odd bits of mortality facts on notebook paper, his narrative proceeds in short, candid chapters that reveal a boy who, though he's not ready to die, nevertheless can confront the reality with heartbreaking clarity. As his parents wrangle about treatment (he doesn't want it), his little sister grapples with the changes to the household and his best friend and fellow cancer-sufferer dies, Sam methodically works through the things he wants to do before he dies, from going up a down escalator to the more problematic ride in an airship and seeing the earth from space. Nicholls's debut skillfully avoids bathos at every turn, sketching a fully-formed character readers will be glad they've met and sorry to bid farewell. (Fiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews