When author/illustrator Cathy Nilon was 43 and diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, she couldn’t comprehend how to explain to 4-year-old son Luca what Mommy was going to go through. She couldn’t find any programs for his age group and her family had no mental health coverage to help cope with the trauma.

Nilon, now 46 and a breast cancer survivor, has created Chemo Cat ($9.95, Ravenna Press), a heart-wrenching, but ultimately uplifting story of her family’s cancer journey, told in the voice of her son.

Luca and Mama cat, aka Cat-Cat, are a family of cats who take you through their thoughts and emotions — the highs and the deepest lows — of that difficult period. Chemo Cat is poignant for the mere fact that it’s so real.

When you see cancer’s ravages through the eyes of the young — who have to figure out why Mama’s hair has fallen out and why she throws up all the time and why she can’t play with him like she used to — it becomes all the more unfathomable.

Says Luca in the book: “I was saddest by far and sometimes would shout ; or just sit on my floor and cry my eyes out. I was tired of kids who had healthier moms ...”

Almost as compelling as the story and gorgeous illustrations is the foreword, where Nilon gives thanks to the supportive sisterhood she found through her cancer experience. Read it and you really understand why we call them “survivors.”

Find It:
The book is available here :
or at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. All proceeds go to
Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

K.V.W.

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