From a site called Teenspoint:
There are two things we can be sure of in this world,
the old saying goes: death and taxes. Tax stories are
boring beyond all bearing, so illness and death
are Lurlene McDaniel's chosen subjects.
The Lumberjack's never really read any of this woman's work but I'll bet I've bought
two or three trees worth of her books. The kid reads them *fast*. Way, way faster
than anything else she's read. So it's a good thing that Lurlene comes out with
a new book more often than Michael Moore brushes his teeth.
Truth is, I was a little concerned when I went to Amazon and checked out the
titles available: Please Don't Die, Someone Dies -- Someone Lives, Don't Die, My Love,
Till Death Do Us Part.... you get the idea. It sounded like the kind
of writing that called for Parental Supervision; you know, the kind where I
have to start saying "no" and incurring wrath. So I spent actual
hours web-sluthing and the consensus from all the book reports, parents'
comments, and reviews is that Lurlene is a white-hat, ie actually helping kids
somewhat with questions of death, illness, and rotten breaks. Good. Parental
action averted. The poor kid has had a rough year; if these books help, then
good.
I am going to have to read a few of them though. The internet is
a good place to get a diversity of opinion but it's also the source
of some world class misinformation. I'll just have to make sure none of the guys
on the loading docks see a Lurlene book in my cab. Damned if I want to live down
a sensitive-guy reputation; it takes just lavish swearing and profuse spitting and
inappropriate scratching and such.
