While her husband, David, was undergoing radiation therapy for an inoperable cancerous tumor in his skull, Jane Yolen, a bestselling children's book author (Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?) wrote a sonnet a night. The poetry enabled her to vent a whirlwind of contradictory and deep-seated feelings about this challenging ordeal. When Yolen read some of her sonnets on NPR's All Things Considered, they struck a chord in many cancer patients and care-givers.
There is an unflinching honesty and intimacy to these 40 poems that touch the heart. They deal with naps, changing roles, conflict over food, a talisman hawk, bad days, visitors, hair loss, the waiting room, and graduation day "from the harrowing halls of treatment." Yolen's love, hope, and patience shine through these sonnets like the rays of a rainbow.