How do you explain a complicated and frightening disease such as cancer to a young child who is naturally curious with questions? “What causes it?” “Can you catch it?”
At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara will host a reading of Nana, What’s Cancer? by local author Beverlye Hyman Fead and her granddaughter and co-author, Tessa Mae Hamermesh.
In 2002, Fead, a stage IV cancer survivor, was given two months to live. Seven years later, she teamed up with her 11-year-old granddaughter, Tessa Mae, to pen Nana, What’s Cancer?
In this loving conversation, grandmother and granddaughter tackle dozens of questions — written by Hamermesh, who has lost three other grandparents to cancer. Fead provides honest answers that are designed to ease children’s fears by offering them comforting and factual information in a sensitive and child-friendly way.
Nana, What’s Cancer? is a recipient of the prestigious Mom’s Choice Award in the category of Children’s Picture Books (Health & Safety).
The book opens with the title question of “What’s cancer?” and follows with topics such as what causes the disease and why some cancers are different than others. A Montecito resident, Fead is a longtime supporter of the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara. She is also the author of I Can Do This: Living with Cancer, Tracing a Year of Hope.
A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow the reading, which will be in the Cancer Resource Library at the Cancer Center. Children and adults are encouraged to attend, and the first 30 people to RSVP will receive a free copy of the book (courtesy of the American Cancer Society).
The event is free. For more information or to RSVP, contact the Cancer Center at 805.898.2116 or events@ccsb.org.
— Daniella Elghanayan is a publicist.