The Truth About Stacey

The Truth About Stacey(The Baby-Sitters Club)/Text by Ann M. Martin, Art by Raina Telgemeier



New York, USA:Scolastic Inc, 2006





This book is part of a very popular series - The Baby-Sitters Club. Stacey
has moved to a new town with her parents. She is trying to manage her diabetes but her parents are very overprotective. Stacey doesn't want her new friends to know she has diabetes in case they avoid her. She also has difficulties in her baby sitting club, has boyfriend problems and has to contend with a rival baby-sitting club. All good reading for children aged 9 and older.
This book has a colourful cover which is in stark contrast to the black and white graphics inside. The reader is not distracted by colourful illustrations thus making the dialogue the focal point of the story. The dialogue is easy to read with lots of speech bubbles. The management of diabetes in an adolescent is cleverly incorporated into the storyline without it being too oppressive.
I highly recommend this book as a fun and entertaining read, at the same time being informative but not too overwhelming.

What's Up with Ella?

What's up with Ella? Medikidz explain Type 1 Diabetes/Dr Kim Chilman-Blair & John Taddeo (adapted from materials written by Maxwell Pankhurst; art by Liquid Comics)

London, England:Medikidz, 2009.

This graphic novel is targeted towards 9- 15 years. It is part of the series title: Medikidz.The Medikidz are superheroes who travel inside the body to explain diabetes. Ella has a diabetic turn and the Medikidz take her to Mediland (which is in fact the human body). There she has an adventure with an invasion by bacteria who are fought off by the white blood cells.She is shown how diabetes affects the way the body works. The Medikidz don't beat around the bush but mix fun with fact. Medical information is presented in such a way that can be understood by the reader.

Explaining diabetes using this genre is a fun and exciting way to reach out to those children who suffer the diasease.The graphics are colourful, easy to follow and the dialogue relates well to children of this age.