From School Library Journal
Gr 4-8-Sickle cell disease, also called sickle cell anemia, is explained through the life story of one boy. Keone Penn suffered many infections, pneumonia, and fevers and, at the age of five, had a stroke. Bone-marrow transplants were not an option for him because there was no donor. In 1998, he was the first recipient of a stem-cell transplant to grow bone marrow. It had been used on a few patients with leukemia, but he was the first with sickle cell disease. Two years later the doctors proclaimed him cured. He still has some permanent disabilities, but is now able to fight some infections without going to the hospital. Through Keone's experience, readers learn about the disease: its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Color photographs and diagrams illustrate the text. The ease of reading puts the level of this book between Melanie Apel Gordon's Let's Talk about Sickle Cell Anemia (PowerKids, 2000) for the very young and the more scientific and historical Sickle Cell Anemia (Enslow, 1997) by Alvin and Virginia Silverstein.
Martha Gordon, formerly at South Salem Library, NY
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
