BEING HERE: A COLLECTION OF WRITINGS BY KIDS AT THE IWK CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL Compiled by Lisa Joyce Halifax, Izaak Walton Killam Children's Hospital, 1990. 51pp, paper, $2.50, ISBN 0-919001-66-1 Distributed by the IWK Children's Hospital, Child Life Depart­ment, 5850 University Ave., P.O. Box 3070, Halifax, N.S. B3J 3G9 Grades 5 and up/Ages 10 and up Reviewed by Maryleah Otto. Volume 19 Number 5 1991 October Lisa Joyce is seventeen. She likes pop music, school friends, new clothes, the whole teen scene. She's just like millions of other Canadian adolescents, except for one thing. Lisa has cancer. In her introduction to this collection of poems and short commentaries on what life is like for young patients at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax, Lisa says she got the idea of compiling such a work during her monthly visits for chemotherapy treatments. Patients were asked to write a few lines in prose or poetry to express their feelings about their illnesses or accidents. Lisa's goal was to "give patients a chance to show others how they feel and for them to learn that they're not alone and that there are others who feel the same way." She has certainly succeeded. No one who reads this book will easily forget it. The young writers are from nine to eighteen years old. Some are recovering and looking forward to a normal life. Others know they'll never reach maturity. Their expressions contain the full range of emotions associated with illness — anger, denial, fear, worry, acceptance and hope. A few poems speak of God and faith. Many mention friendship and the kindness of the doctors and nurses. Nearly everyone tries to be hopeful. Two or three even manage to be funny. Being Here will be a welcome addi­tion to bibliotherapy collections in hospitals. It is a poignant insight into a tragic world that most young people will, fortunately, never see. Excellence in writing is not the point in this collection; the strength lies in the content. Maryleah Otto, St. Thomas Public Library, St. Thomas, Ont.