Tabitha's mother has cancer and has to undergo chemotherapy. The treatments make the mother's hair fall out and give her a huge appetite. Worse still, the treatment makes her tired and irritable. Tabitha misses their warm tickle games. Tabitha, her brother and even the cat get frightened when their mother gets angry. When their father sees this, he uses love and humor to help provide support. Tabitha finds a way to get her mother to show her old warmth. The superb illustrations are warm and expressive. When the picture shows the shadow of the angry mother, wig askew, standing over Tabitha, one really gets the sense of how Tabitha experiences her mother just then. Mood changes are more difficult for children to understand than the more concrete aspects of an illness. This book does an excellent job of showing how these mood The story is realistic without being scarey. This book would be good not just for children of cancer patients but also for children of parents withother chronic diseases such as Hepatitis C. A variety of illness and treatments can cause an individual to be irritable or moody.

This award-winning children's book was written and published by a cancer survivor and provides a delightful but honest perspective on surviving cancer.