YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY GOOD-BYE

This story, related by 13-year-old Sarah about her mother's death from cancer, is less restrained, less filled-out with other concerns, than Harlan's Footfalls (below), as well as less leery of falling into maudlin sentimentality (here, the mother finally dies on Christmas Eve); but its unabashed concentration on the family ordeal may bring readers closer to sharing Sarah's feelings. Those feelings are the usual ones, including anger at Mom for leaving her and for insisting that Sarah face what's happening, and there are lots of tearful scenes as well as some bright moments of hope or just plain fleeting fun. Sarah's cheerful, loving lawyer mother is almost too noble and the family perhaps too friction-free; but Hermes brings unresistant readers into the experience and gives Sarah the same natural appeal that saved her story of a brother's death in Nobody's Fault (p. 135, J-29).