Talk to the Hand by Nicole Dryburgh

Talk to the Hand by Nicole Dryburgh
Buy Talk to the Hand by Nicole Dryburgh at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: More inspirational stuff from a very strong-minded young lady. Nicole Dryburgh is a one-woman powerhouse who refuses to submit to the various taboos of disability, and kudos to her for that.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 192	Date: February 2010
Publisher: Hodder
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 0340996978
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We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book The Way I See It, which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-and-all picture of her life that she gave us then, and so we were really pleased to see that she's written a second book.

Since TWISI ended, Nicole's had more health problems: doctors failed to quickly diagnose tumours in her ears, and she's now almost completely deaf; she had to have surgery for an enormous bladder stone; her needle phobia grew to intolerable proportions. You do kinda wonder just how much one person is expected to take. But none of this daunts Nicole, and Talk to the Hand is another vivid, honest and energetic book about what happened to her, what she's done about it and what she's done for other people, what she likes (pink things, chocolate, her dogs) and what she doesn't (inattentive doctors, needles, running out of Nice n Spicy Nik Naks).

Much of the book is about illness, of course, and much of the rest is about fundraising for medical charities. But the book isn't actually focused on these things at all - it's a young girl's chatty diary, a blog in print. It's a gossip, a natter, some shared advice - the kind of thing girls do up and down the country, whether they're ill or not. It's aimed at Nicole's peer group, but it's accessible and easy to read, so girls at late primary age would enjoy it, but it's also so open and enjoyable that their mothers will love it too.

Nicole Dryburgh is a one-woman powerhouse who refuses to submit to the various taboos of disability, and kudos to her for that. I think you should read her book.

Oh - and go to her website: www.c-h-o-c.org.uk.

My thanks to the good people at Hodder for sending the book, and to Nicole for writing it.

Castlecliff by Elizabeth Pulford is fiction, but features a young girl who has cancer, and who shows Nicole's wonderful strength of character. The Year We Disappeared is Cylin Busby's memoir, written for children, about the time following her father's shooting. It sounds off topic, but I think it has the same taboo-busting basis as Nicole's book.

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