Nowhere Hair | Children's Book

Who has talked about Nowhere Hair ?

"But if a book for small children is too depressing, some adults just won't buy it. When Sue Glader was diagnosed with breast cancer, she went looking for books to read to her nieces and nephews. 'I saw a lot of things that were really very sad and very scary or super-technical for a young child,' she says. So when she was going through chemo, she wrote the book Nowhere Hair." Aired June 13, 2013 on Morning Edition.

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"Some serious yuck went down for Sue Glader 11 years ago. She had a young child. And a cancer diagnosis. There isn’t much in the way of books that attempt to talk to kids about this topic. So she wrote one. It’s called Nowhere Hair and it’s terrific. Who knew such a delightful book could be written about something so scary? The illustrations by Edith Buenen are stylish and beautiful and the story is clever."

There's a book for that! Turn to these pages for questions that make you say, "Uhh..."

"How come she doesn't have any hair?"

"Nowhere Hair by Sue Glader. This story about a little girl's search for her mom's missing hair helps to gently explain chemo to kids."

[This is available only in the print edition.]

"Nowhere Hair is cheeky in its approach to why mommy’s hair is falling out from her cancer medicine. This book is a wonderful tool to explain that hair may fall, but a mother’s love never fails."

"I tweeted this last week but wanted to share it, again, here: an inspiring story about an inspiring story. Sue Glader is a breast cancer survivor who wrote a beautiful book called Nowhere Hair. A must read/purchase for families enduring chemo."

"For the book’s young star—and for the reader—the sometimes-silly yet poignant take on the topic serves to normalize the experience: it’s okay to be confused, worried, scared, and sad, the book says. And perhaps most important, Nowhere Hair shows us that though cancer treatment is scary and worrisome, it doesn’t change who we are on the inside, nor how much we love each other. Life does go on: mamas still hug their children, silliness is allowed, and all feelings—happy, sad, and otherwise—are valid."

Nowhere Hair is a children’s book that helps prepare young ones for living with someone going through chemotherapy. It does the heavy lifting, without being heavy and addresses a child’s guilt, fear, sadness and anxiety with a light touch. It is silly and upbeat and involves many crazy hats and a strikingly cool-looking bald woman."

"The book shows how a child can learn how to cope with feelings of confusion, worry, fear, guilt, and sorrow at the changes in their beloved parent. At the same time, it gives that parent a way to talk through these issues and lift the emotional weight of cancer into a lighter vein. Nowhere Hair accomplishes this difficult task. The book doesn't address life and death questions, but it does help with the everyday issues that come up when a parent is having chemotherapy.

“How in the world will I tell my kids?”

Like a lightening bolt this thought travels up from your toes, wraps around your heart, and ties up your lips. A cancer diagnosis is bad enough to digest. The idea of having to explain the unexplainable to young children is breathtakingly hard. And it’s certainty not a conversation that you’ve considered before the moment of your diagnosis. And yet, you must.

What advice would you give parents who are trying to talk to their kids about cancer/illness?

In a country with swine flu mania and hand washing ad campaigns, it’s important to explain that cancer is not a germ that you can catch. Love and hugs and kisses are welcome more than ever. And the other big concept to impart is that a child did not cause his or her parent’s cancer. Refusing to eat vegetables did not cause it. Nor fighting with siblings. Basically, mom or dad’s cancer is not their fault. Then remember to offer information in small bites. How you present this information to them, and by that I mean how you are appearing and acting as well as what and how much you say, will help lay the foundation for how your kids cope.

It’s a children’s book that’s part whimsy, part cancer but full of humor, and sensitivity. There are positive images for the young and the not so young. Glader said when it comes to women with breast cancer, ”You are just as sexy, you are just as beautiful, you are just as powerful, you are just as cool. You just don’t happen to have hair.” This book is a message of hope for all the women walking in her shoes.

"Glader wondered what children's books said about moms who lose their hair and was discouraged to find dreary, even frightening, accounts. "I didn't look fantastic [after chemo]," she says, but she felt the portrayals were unnecessarily grim. She dreamed of a different presentation: brighter and maybe even a bit whimsical. "If you present something in a certain light, kids are going to run with it."

"I turned to what I do well: words. Inspired by the interesting looks children gave me when I took Hans to the playground, I decided to write something that would explain a cancer diagnosis and the ensuing bald mama (or granny, auntie, friend, teacher) to youngsters. In truth, I wanted to transform the yucky from my experience into something beautiful. Something inspiring."

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"When Mill Valley mom Sue Glader was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago, she couldn’t find a book to explain it to her son that wasn’t hideous, overly technical or creepy. So, she wrote one, for children ages 3 to 7."

"When it started to come out, and it was clear that the jig was up and I had to face the music, I marched my husband and son down to the local barber, and he took the clipper and drove a strip down the middle of my head. And in, what, a minute I had no more hair. And it was over. And I thought, "Ok, here we go."

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