Be a Friend: Children Who Live With HIV Speak

Writings and drawings by children with HIV infections and their siblings express their deepest hopes and fears about their lives, their disease, death, and their families

Grade 4 Up-A collection of drawings and writings by young HIV patients of the National Cancer Institute. These young people-ages 5 to 19-reveal the human face of HIV and AIDS, and plead for acceptance and kindness. In "I often wonder," the contributors question and dream, expressing fears and speculations about death. "Living with HIV" is about coping on a day-to-day basis with uncertainties and limitations, pain, and never-ending medical interventions. "Family, Friends, and AIDS" records the isolation that society's fears impose. Some children try to reassure readers about the safety of casual contact, appealing for an end to panic. Ignorance and prejudice are the targets of a 10-year-old's essay, "How to treat people with AIDS." The drawings lack technical expertise and sophistication, but are moving. Elaine Landau's We Have AIDS (Watts, 1990), for older readers, features teens' life stories as well as medical facts.
Libby K. White, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"When I told the kids at school I had AIDS, they made fun of me. I told them by accident. Now I want to run away from school." This poignant collection aims to free children infected with AIDS or HIV from their onerous silence--and their peers from insensitivity. Most of the contributors of the brief statements and drawings here are pediatric AIDS or HIV patients at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.; a few, piercing entries come from siblings ("I really want my brother to know that I love him even if I don't always show it. There are just some times that I have to hit him back"). Although an adult hand is clearly present, particularly in a section where each bit of text begins "I often wonder," the children express their emotions with wrenching candor, whether discussing living with illness, their hopes and fears, or their thoughts about God and heaven. There is room, too, for acceptance and humor: "What will happen to my stuff and my room? (Casey will probably get most of it, but making a museum would not be such a bad idea)." This is an eye-opening, emotionally challenging book, profits from which will be donated to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Compiled by the coordinator of the Pediatric HIV Psychosocial Support Program and the Chief of Pediatrics at NIH's National Cancer Institute, plus an artist who lost her son to AIDS, a selection of art and writing by young patients at the Institute. These candid, heartfelt pieces are a poignant blend of the cosmic and the mundane. The children wonder about God or personify AIDS as a monster; several worry about how their families will cope after their deaths, while one observes that the doctors' wearing gloves ``bothers'' him. Grouping makes the pieces more telling: The dreams and yearnings of the ``I often wonder...'' section are followed by the daily struggles of ``Living with HIV,'' especially the pain of keeping it secret or of being rejected; viewpoints of family and friends round out the offering. Robert Coles contributes an inspirational foreword underlining the contributors' precocious wisdom and courage. An eloquent plea for compassion and--most of all--for acceptance. ``All publisher's profits and royalties will be donated to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.'' (Nonfiction. 7+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 6-9. Wiener and her colleagues humanize AIDS through the voices of its victims and their families in a collection of drawings and writings done by children involved in treatment or counseling at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Bright crayon colors used in the book design help balance the poignancy of the writings, some of which appear as the child wrote them, while others are set in an attractive, informal dark type that gives the feeling of being hand done. The words of the young contributors, who range in age from 5 to 15, provide only limited background on AIDS and HIV (readers are bound to have questions the text doesn't answer). They reveal more about what kids cope with, and some of the most poignant observations come, not from individuals who have AIDS, but from their young family members. The art, of course, will draw attention--there's no mistaking that it's been done by kids--and a moving foreword by Robert Coles sets the perfect tone. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Stephanie Zvirin