Sort of Forever - Hardcover

Warner, Sally

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679886486 ISBN 13: 9780679886488

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 1998

Synopsis

Cady and Nana have been friends forever and they look forward to starting middle school together, but before they reach their teenage years, Nana is diagnosed with bone cancer and their friendship takes on a whole new meaning.

About this title

About the Author

Sally Warner lives in Pasadena, California.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

"The talented Warner has previously explored the themes of friendship and change, but never more powerfully or affectingly than in this piercing novel. Driven almost exclusively by dialogue, her narrative focuses on the necessarily metamorphosing relationship between the often needy 12-year-old Cady and her normally independent, feisty best friend, Nana, who is dying of cancer."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Readers will share the rush of emotions in this heartbreaking but satisfying story."--Booklist

From the Inside Flap

breaks new ground with a powerful story about the toughest test of friendship. For as long as Cady Winton can remember, she and Nana Weber have done everything together, from cutting each other's hair to daring themselves to ride the scariest roller coaster at Magic Mountain. And both had been looking forward to starting middle school together in the fall. But just when Cady and Nana were anticipating being teenagers, their plans spin away from them. At the age of twelve, Nana is diagnosed with bone cancer, and suddenly the present is so much more important than the future. With refreshing honesty, Sally Warner helps brush aside the mysticism of dying and replaces it with the courage of friendship. Comforting and profoundly moving, Sort of Forever is, by turns, a sincere, funny, painful, and uplifting view of dying, as well as a celebration of life.

Reviews

Grade 5-7-Cady and Nana have been best friends since, well, forever. Now, however, Nana is seriously ill with cancer, and though Cady wants to be there for her, it is becoming more and more difficult. Not only has the illness taken a toll on Nana's body, but it has also worn away at her strong and lively spirit. Cady's parents make no secret of the fact that they are concerned about their daughter spending so much time with her dying friend. After Cady begins seventh grade, she experiences feelings of guilt about making a new friend, her own enjoyment of life, and her wish for the old Nana back. Ultimately, she stays true to Nana and remains at her bedside until the end. This is a touching story that portrays without melodrama Cady's sadness, denial, and guilt over Nana's illness, as well as her admirable commitment to stand by her friend. Nana's anger at her predicamentAher steadily failing body, diminishing physical capacity, and awareness of what she'll miss in lifeAis matter-of-fact. Her annoyance at her mother's hovering is typically teenage. Cady's emotions vacillate between wanting to get on with her life and remaining with her friend, allowing readers to understand the difficulty involved in slowly losing someone to death. A substantive and realistic look at a difficult situation.
Carrie A. Guarria, Lindenhurst Memorial Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Warner (Ellie and the Bunheads, 1997, etc.), a story about best friends separated by illness, then death, when one of them is diagnosed with leukemia. Cady and Nana have been friends since they were babies, but as the story opens, on Nana's 12th birthday, she has cancer and Cady, the timid one, is trying to figure out what to do. She visits Nana every day, even in the hospital, even when her friend comes home to die. Cady is angry and lonely, and doesn't understand why her parents are concerned. Both sets of parents, the nurses, doctors, and hospice workers, fill this book with words: descriptions of cancer treatment; a fairly clinical delineation of how those with leukemia may get sicker and die; and some fairly straight talk about survivor anger and guilt, how the dying feel, what happens to daily life when a loved one is dying. The information ultimately overwhelms the story: The best friends are described rather than felt, less vividly realized than Cady's brother Russell, five, who is terrified that his sister will die, just as his pet turtle did. This is more bibliotherapeutic than story; much richer and more harrowingalthough with older protagonists and for older readersis Davida Wills Hurwin's A Time for Dancing (1995). (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679886486
• ISBN 13: 9780679886488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 136