Cystic Fibrosis: The Ultimate Teen Guide (It Happened to ... (ISBN 081084821X)

For Those Who Need To Know:
Cystic fibrosis is much more than a chronic, life-threatening medical condition. The disease is bad enough, but it has far-reaching effects on many parts of the body. Those who suffer with it are condemned to a very complicated way of life they'd never voluntarily choose. Friends, family and loved ones are affected by it too. Melanie Apel deftly guides the reader to an understanding of many facets of CF: biological, emotional, psychological and social. Her point of view as insider/outsider/guide is successful and she has both empathy and knowledge based on her experience and training. She's employed a good voice for the target audience, too--it's direct and doesn't sidestep issues, there are lots of real-life stories, and when she explains the science end of things she doesn't talk down to readers or become too overwhelmingly complicated. The last part of the book is necessarily sad--most with the disease eventually succumb to it, but the book ends on a hopeful and courageous note. If it had been around when I was a teenager, I would have wanted to read it. I'm glad it's around now that I'm an adult. I learned a lot.

This book is for EVERYONE involved with cystic fibrosis; not just teens.:
Although the book goes under the heading of being a "The Ultimate Teen Guide," for teenagers with cystic fibrosis, I think that is much to confining a categorization. This is a book that EVERYONE involved with cystic fibrosis should read. Children probably should not read it until their teen years, but parents should read it long before their child reaches the teen years. Doctors and nurses should read it in their student years. Extended family members - grandparents, aunts and uncles - should read it so they really learn what cystic fibrosis is all about. I think parents of children with cystic fibrosis sort of insulate their families from knowing what cystic fibrosis is really about and this book explains it in a vividly accurate but extremely readable manner. Parents of children with cystic fibrosis would do well to buy more than one copy, wrap them up and give them to the rest of their family. I wish we had something like this when we needed it instead of just a few pamphlets and folders.

Family members needing educating:
Definately a book that family members should read. Even though family members may be very close to someone with cf, there is still that denial that comes with cystic fibrosis, "he/she looks great". If this book had been around when my son was younger, I would have made sure that certain family members had their own copy to read.