My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead. Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer. "Ways To Live Forever" is the first novel from an extraordinarily talented young writer. Funny and honest, it is one of the most powerful and uplifting books you will ever read.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 4–7—Eleven-year-old Sam knows that he is dying from leukemia. He has decided to write a book that includes his thoughts on the matter as well as his lists and his questions, particularly those that no one ever answers like, "Why does God let kids get ill?" Through his writing, Nicholls has drawn a portrait of a family coping with a child's terminal disease. Readers meet Sam's mother, father, and younger sister, each of whom is dealing in a different way with his illness. Well researched and beautifully written, the book is equal to the best of children's literature about death and dying, Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia (HarperCollins, 1977) and Deborah Wiles's Each Little Bird That Sings (Harcourt, 2005). Sam knows that his father rushes off to work each day because he cannot admit to himself that his son is dying. He knows that his mother keeps Ella home from school during an unexpected snowstorm in March so they can have one last sledding day together. But, he does not verbalize this knowledge, just as his parents and Ella don't speak of his death. Sam is a child whom readers would want as a friend and he will be missed when the book is done.—Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
“My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. I have leukemia. By the time you read this I will probably be dead.” So begins a frank, guileless, unflinching first-person account of the last days of a young boy’s life. Sam is writing a book of his experiences, and in a raw, keen voice, he confronts both the uncertainties and certainties of his illness, laying bare its physical and emotional toll. Nicholls balances passages of heavy despair with moments of inspirational bravery, and Sam’s unapologetically sentimental narrative is always honest and never cloying. At the outset, he makes a list of things he wants to do, and that list becomes a map that helps guide his family and friends in their shared journey toward Sam’s unwelcome, unavoidable destination. The story ends as promised, but Nicholls invests the final moments with appropriate grace, reminding the reader of Sam’s courage, frailty, and resilient humanity. Grades 3-7. --Thom Barthelmess
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
I was born in Stockton-on-Tees in England, just after midnight, in a thunderstorm. My father died when I was two, and my brother Ian and I were brought up my mother. I always wanted to write - when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say "I'm going to be a writer" - very definite.
I've always loved reading, and I spent most of my childhood trying to make real life as much like a book as possible. My friends and I had a secret club like the Secret Seven, and when I was nine I got most of my hair cut off because I wanted to look like George in the Famous Five. I was a real tomboy - I liked riding my bike, climbing trees and building dens in our garden. And I liked making up stories. I used to wander round my school playground at break, making up stories in my head.
More...
I went to two secondary schools - a little Quaker school in North Yorkshire (where it was so cold that thick woolly jumpers were part of the school uniform) and a big comprehensive. I was very lonely at the little school, but I made friends at the comprehensive and got on all right. I didn't like being a teenager very much, though.
After school, I got to be an adult, which was fantastic. I went and worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Japan and then travelled around Australia and New Zealand. I jumped off bridges and tall buildings, climbed Mount Doom, wore a kimono and went to see a ballet in the Sydney Opera House. Then I came back and did a degree in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. In my third year, realising with some panic that I was now supposed to earn a living, I enrolled in a masters in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa. It was here that I wrote Ways to Live Forever. I also won the prize for the writer with most potential, through which I got my agent. Four months later, I had a publisher.
I now live in a little flat in Oxford, England, writing stories, and trying to believe my luck.
Follow me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sally-Nicholls-Writer/373654539008
Visit my website at: http://www.sallynicholls.com/
I've always loved reading, and I spent most of my childhood trying to make real life as much like a book as possible. My friends and I had a secret club like the Secret Seven, and when I was nine I got most of my hair cut off because I wanted to look like George in the Famous Five. I was a real tomboy - I liked riding my bike, climbing trees and building dens in our garden. And I liked making up stories. I used to wander round my school playground at break, making up stories in my head.
More...
I went to two secondary schools - a little Quaker school in North Yorkshire (where it was so cold that thick woolly jumpers were part of the school uniform) and a big comprehensive. I was very lonely at the little school, but I made friends at the comprehensive and got on all right. I didn't like being a teenager very much, though.
After school, I got to be an adult, which was fantastic. I went and worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Japan and then travelled around Australia and New Zealand. I jumped off bridges and tall buildings, climbed Mount Doom, wore a kimono and went to see a ballet in the Sydney Opera House. Then I came back and did a degree in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. In my third year, realising with some panic that I was now supposed to earn a living, I enrolled in a masters in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa. It was here that I wrote Ways to Live Forever. I also won the prize for the writer with most potential, through which I got my agent. Four months later, I had a publisher.
I now live in a little flat in Oxford, England, writing stories, and trying to believe my luck.
Follow me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sally-Nicholls-Writer/373654539008
Visit my website at: http://www.sallynicholls.com/
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simply (and) beutiful!,
By Milan R. "zzz" (Serbia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ways To Live Forever (Hardcover)
How lovely novel this is. Normally I don't read novel for young adults but I did liked this one very much indeed. The language is simply but absolutely beautiful; portraits as well; it's really impossible not to love Felix and entire Sam's family (and of course Sam). From the very beginning you are stunned by horrifying circumstance characters of the novel are facing with and feel gratefulness cause you're not from that story. Then you realize that there are numerous people in precisely the same situation and from that moment you're not looking on this novel as a work of fiction. You're starting to feel their pain and respect their courage. You're seeing real children and their loved ones under those pages ...Eventually you're absolutely emotionally attached with them so don't be surprise if your eyes start watering (be surprise if they don't!).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written. Please write more books!,
This review is from: Ways To Live Forever (Hardcover)
I read (mostly skim)young adult books mainly to make sure they are suitable for my children, but I found myself reading every word of this book. Having had cancer myself 9 years ago, there are questions that you ask about your own mortality. I can't imagine being 11 and faced with the fact that you are dying. Sally Nichols brings Sam to life, and you feel as if you are reading his actual journal, not reading a fictional book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"By the time you read this, I will probably be dead",
This review is from: Ways To Live Forever (Hardcover)
The summing up statement at the beginning of this story introduces this multimodal reader effectively "This is my book...it is a collection of lists, stories, pictures, questions and facts. It is also my story".Sam is 11 years old and has leukaemia. He is also a fun-loving, intelligent boy with a zest for trying to cram a list of experiences into the short time that is left before he dies. This story folllows him in his fulfillment of his list of things he wants to do, in such a funny and unsentimental way, that I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry on many of the pages (of course, I was already sniffling by the time I had gotten to page 2, anyone who knows me, knows I am a complete wimp). The power lies in the fact that Sam is unsentimental, not much mush, even though the actual events and stories are emotionally highly charged. His pleasure and awareness of everyday small things that most people take for granted is evident throughout, for example in the thrill of sunshine, snow or a simple thing like seeing a clear sky during a powercut. In terms of genuine quality this was a winner. Stories that seem completely real and genuine are a bit of a rarity, but this was one I had trouble with, I just found it difficult to believe someone had written this and dreamed it up (I had a similar experience with 'Life of Pi'). Having said that, there are probably plenty of 'Sams' out there, who feel this is their story. I'm making everyone old enough in the house read this one. A big thumbs up for the author- did I mention it's the winner of the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2008? What a super read!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
