Too Soon to Say Good-Bye

by Deborah Kent

Diagnosed with leukemia after a fainting spell, young Jill copes with painful therapy, being treated differently by her family and peers, and facing the frightening possibility that she will die

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Deborah Kent was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Little Falls. She graduated from Oberlin College and received a master's degree from Smith College School for Social Work. For four years, she was a social worker at University Settlement House on New York's Lower East Side. In 1975, Ms. Kent moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she wrote her first young-adult novel, Belonging. In San Miguel, Ms. Kent helped to found the Centro de Crecimiento, a school for children with disabilities. Ms. Kent is the author of numerous young-adult novels and nonfiction titles for children. She lives in Chicago with her husband, children's author R. Conrad Stein, and their daughter, Janna.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Middle elementary school age. Very realistic fiction about a girl who gets leukemia. Stats are dated because there has been a lot of pfogress in treating cancer in the last 20 years.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill has leukemia, a great book about a young girls battle with cancer, and how it affects the family.

[Katy Lohman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sad and moving story of a young teen who finds out she has leukemia. it is a hard pill for her to swallow (pun intended), and she struggles to make things go back to normal...sometimes in very unwise ways. We get to see how a whole family is effected when one member has a dangerous diagnosis.

[Rebekah Haas · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book about a girl who gets lukemia. I think it's supposed to be inspiring, and it might be if I was 8 or 9 years younger.

Jill, the MC, is whiney, impulsive, and makes bad decisions regarding her health- she's not even fleshed out enough to really be a dislikable character.

I don't have much to say about it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always looking for books for young readers- this is on my list.

[Jaelyn O · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book because it is about this girl who likes to swim but finds out that she has leukemia and has to stop swimming. They take her to the hospital and she has to have a bone marrow test. A girl she met at the hospital said it hurts really bad and says to not look at the needle. Well the girl accidently looks at the needle and she starts freaking out becuase it was huge! So finally when it was over she says she will never do that again. And they tell her that she can go back home and that she can swim again and she is so happy!

[Chauntelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

When i was younger i read this and many other books that i'm tracking down OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!


This one always brought tears to my eye's i thank a jennifer (who posted this title on a discussion) for leading me to it again!!!!!!

It's a book that is definitely a keeper i wish i didn't move away so suddenly so i could have kept all my books and save's me the hassle of finding and buying them again!!!!!!!!

[Angeles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I read with my daughter.

Since we had a death in the family from cancer a few years back, she started reading books that deal with death and illness. This is one of the happier of these book types.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

How does it feel to have your life taken away from you at an age when you're just beginning to understand the world? Take it from the perspective of a young girl who discovers what she has can take her life, or take a lifetime curing it.

[Darthtunaqueen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book over and over and over as a teen, the writing isn't super, but it's meant for a young audience (and the writing level is TOTALLY appropriate for this age). It's a good book, addressing the scarier issues surrounding paediatric oncology without being too wishy-washy.

[Rachel (Sfogs) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leukemia is not what you would expect to be the cause of a little dizzy-spell at school, but for a young girl, who would really know how much it would change her life?
A very humbling read.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who is diagnosed with cancer and the journey it takes her on. I LOVED it!

[Melissa W · Rating 4 out of 5]

i only briefly remember this book but i do remember that it was a very good book.

[Madi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this expecting a lurlene McDaniel type of book. Not even close! Very different. It was good to have a happy-ish ending!

[Chandni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is both a heartbreaking and hopeful novel about a young, 13 year old girl who has to deal with leukemia.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in middle school and recommend it to everyone who likes books w/ these types of covers ;)

But really, it's a good read.