Dear Jack

by Tammi Sauer

Thirteen year old Laney is overjoyed to learn her mother is pregnant. Months later that joy turns to resentment. Her mother discovers she has an aggressive form of breast cancer and decides to delay treatment until after the baby is born. How can Laney possibly accept her mother's decision as well as the consequences that follow?

187 pages

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Tammi Sauer is the author of Cowboy Camp (Sterling, 2005), Chicken Dance (Sterling, 2009), Mostly Monsterly (Paula Wiseman/S&S, 2010), the forthcoming Princess-in-Training (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and something that's currently Top Secret.

Tammi and her family live in Oklahoma with one dog, two geckos, and a tank full of random fish.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very moving story of a young girl's loss. Would be great bibliotherapy for middle school girls.

[Lilkitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome
I feel kinda slack for laney they should have made her mother live

[Mezhgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a roller coaster ride of emotions. It had informal language which was okay and good for younger audiences to understand. The book really messes with the reader's emotions which I found... emotional.

I found Laney's character to be quite selfish and self-absorbed, but I guess she learns in the end? Laney is also your normal teenage girl who is dating a guy, which I kind of found irrelevant to the story. It didn't really make sense to the story for Laney to be dating at the situation her mother is in, but I guess life goes on?

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars as it was good, but not my top picks, as it had informal language and the plot was okay too, not much anticipation that made me really want to go on. It was not a page turner, but it was okay.