The Gathering Place Press has released a novel kind of book for children who are close to someone with cancer. If a particular situation or procedure does not apply to the patient in question, such as death or chemotherapy, you can remove that page, making it a truly customizable book. What a clever idea!

The book was authored by Kathleen McCue, a Child Life Specialist with over 30 years experience in children’s mental health when faced with serious illness. It was illustrated by Jenny Campbell.

You can order the book for $21.95, with the price dropping for quantities above 24 units.

Camp Kesem is a week-long summer camp for children aged 6 to 13 whose parent has cancer. When a family member has cancer, much of the family’s focus is on the patient and sometimes there isn’t time for the younger child to get quality attention or even to understand what is really happening.

There are hundreds of summer camps to choose from, but children from cancer-afflicted families will enjoy being just kids and do the fun things they can at the other camps. The leaders are college students, but they do not provide any therapy. Instead, there are cabin chat sessions where children can talk about their home experiences (or anything else on their mind) with others. Since every participant comes from a cancer-afflicted family, no child feels different and can help others by sharing their own experience. See the videos and check out their website.