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2005 White Pine Award — Shortlisted
2004 IODE Violet Downey National Book Award — Shortlisted
2004 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection
There’s one other thing I should mention right off, which is that I’m fourteen years old and dying. (I guess that was two things, but the significance of one is sort of tied to the other, don’t you think?)
Kate Benchworth is far from typical. Having been diagnosed with a brain tumour that could end her life at any time, she views the world with refreshing honesty and rare insight. As her family and members of her community struggle to accept what lies ahead, Kate refuses to give in to self-pity. Determined to live each moment to the fullest, she falls in love with a boy locked up in the local jail and befriends the town recluse.
Valerie Sherrard’s new novel is a moving tale about a young woman experiencing the best days of her life, all the while aware that the time she has left is rapidly disappearing.
2004 IODE Violet Downey National Book Award — Shortlisted
2004 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection
There’s one other thing I should mention right off, which is that I’m fourteen years old and dying. (I guess that was two things, but the significance of one is sort of tied to the other, don’t you think?)
Kate Benchworth is far from typical. Having been diagnosed with a brain tumour that could end her life at any time, she views the world with refreshing honesty and rare insight. As her family and members of her community struggle to accept what lies ahead, Kate refuses to give in to self-pity. Determined to live each moment to the fullest, she falls in love with a boy locked up in the local jail and befriends the town recluse.
Valerie Sherrard’s new novel is a moving tale about a young woman experiencing the best days of her life, all the while aware that the time she has left is rapidly disappearing.
Price: $10.99
Pages: 232
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date:
01 November 2003
Trim Size: 7.25 X 5.25 in
ISBN: 9781550024760
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Health & Daily Living / Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries, Children’s / Teenage fiction: General fiction, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Death & Dying, YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Girls & Women, Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues: Body & health, Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues: death & bereavement
Kate is an emotionally honest story that will keep readers smiling through their tears.
Directed at young adults and written in journal form, each word of this novel is perfect — the raw, honest emotion of a 14-year-old navigating life and sadly, death.
Author Valerie Sherrard ventures out into territory few writers would dare touch and succeeds in presenting a surprisingly well-balanced tale with humour and insight and does not overcast the novel with the darkness of Kate's circumstance. Just remember to keep the tissues handy.
an enchanting, poignant story which will have you smiling right up until the last moment, even through your tears.
— The New Brunswick Reader
A sweet simple story of an adolescent girl in a small town in the 1960s who finds love, friendship and support in unlikely places.
— Canadian Children's Book News, Winter 2004
an easy read that might appeal to reluctant readerswell done.
— VOYA, April 2004
a moving, heartwarming story, with many insights to ponder.
— Hi-Rise, April 2004
If you have a young reader at home, a Sherrard novel is a good way to reinforce a reading habit.
— Ottawa Sun
Directed at young adults and written in journal form, each word of this novel is perfect — the raw, honest emotion of a 14-year-old navigating life and sadly, death.
Author Valerie Sherrard ventures out into territory few writers would dare touch and succeeds in presenting a surprisingly well-balanced tale with humour and insight and does not overcast the novel with the darkness of Kate's circumstance. Just remember to keep the tissues handy.
an enchanting, poignant story which will have you smiling right up until the last moment, even through your tears.
— The New Brunswick Reader
A sweet simple story of an adolescent girl in a small town in the 1960s who finds love, friendship and support in unlikely places.
— Canadian Children's Book News, Winter 2004
an easy read that might appeal to reluctant readerswell done.
— VOYA, April 2004
a moving, heartwarming story, with many insights to ponder.
— Hi-Rise, April 2004
If you have a young reader at home, a Sherrard novel is a good way to reinforce a reading habit.
— Ottawa Sun
Valerie Sherrard is the executive director of a group home for adolescents and has fostered more than 70 teenagers. Her first novel, Out of the Ashes, introduced the Shelby Belgarden Mystery series, and was a 2003 Red Maple Honour Book and a nominee for the Arthur Ellis Award for Juvenile Fiction. The second volume in the series, In Too Deep, was published in spring 2003. She lives in Miramichi, New Brunswick, with her husband, Brent.