Ways to Live Forever

When I picked up Sally Nicholls book  Ways to Live Forever, I did not realise how it would hit me so hard when I started to read the book. To read this wonderful book of what a child wants to do before he dies, and the way he set about these tasks was quite mind blowing. The idea of putting his thoughts and feelings and plans for his life in a book is second to none.

He experiences a lot of these things with his friend Felix and his family sister Ella, his mum and dad and also his home tutor Mrs Willis, and with Dr.Bill and Annie his home nurse. They seem to have been a wonderful help to this young lad of just eleven years.  Felix is also ill with leukemia, but is at a further on stage than Sam but they do everything together including some of the things in the book.

The boys are inseperable and when Felix returns to hospital, Sam insists on going to see him although the family think he should not.  But he wants to understand what will happen to him so he gets to learn and understand what the end can be like.  Which makes him less frightened.

I loved this book the tears rolled and I also laughed at some of the antics that these two young people got up to especially the incident when they first met in hospital. That story had me in stitches.

I think Sally Nicholls has done a brilliant job of bringing this childhood form of cancer to the public eye on what its like to have leukemia I will suggest that they read this book that can explain that in children, leukemia can be very much harder to turn around and cure because a child's immune system does not always stand up to the harsh treatment.

I loved the characters and some of their plans were really brilliant, and the idea of making gifts for the people who matter was a wonderful way of leaving a special reminder, for them of a very special child.