Books about long illnesses and convalescence

[sunonthetrees]

what can anyone think of? I’m not looking for Victorian purification by suffering stuff (not even What Katy Did), but more along the lines of Marianne Dreams.

Parallel question, tho not necessarily about children’s books - can anyone think of books about parenting children with long illnesses (from which they recover) or the experience of being a sibling?

Some of Noel Streatfeild's books have convalescence themes (e.g., White Boots), and her autobiography has her sister who is ill spending a lot of time drawing rather than running about.

The Secret Garden has Colin, who is ill and recovers. Also Heidi.

But I think those are more along the What Katy Did lines than what you are looking for!

A Handful of Stars is about a teenager who develops epilepsy.
There are quite a few teen ones about eating disorders as well - e.g., Best Little Girl in the World.
None of them are particularly modern though, more like 80s and 90s, but at least not Victorian-esque

Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster

My daughter's favourite book is
TGC A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney | Girls Gone By Publishers (ggbp.co.uk)

Very much an old fashioned book, but it's one of two books she took for light reading to uni (the other being the very long Les Mis!) I don't think it's made clear what illness Cathy has but the book is about her recovery around a fairly typical 1950s school story theme!

Some of the Famous Five (Five get into a Fix) and at least one of the adventure series (I can only think offhand of The Sea of Adventure, but there might be another) and I think Holiday House is about a house for convalescence, although I might be wrong there. I think at least one of the Faraway Tree sets has a cousin (either Jo or Connie) who comes to them for a rest after being ill, but I might be wrong there.

Susan, Bill and the Wolf Dog, (Malcolm Saville) Susan starts off as having been very ill.

A Storm is Coming by Monica Edwards starts with Lindsey coming to convalesce with Tamsin, and ends with Tamsin recovering from Pneumonia. Also in I think it's Punchbowl Midnight Tamsin has to spend some time convalescing after being shot (not as dramatic as it sounds).

In Further Adventures from One End Street (Eve Garnett) the younger pair (Peggy and Jo) are sent with big sister Kate for convalescence after measles at the Dew Drop Inn. In the following book (Adventures of the Dew Drop Inn) Kate is sent for the same.

I'm sure I have more around just can't think of any at present.

Edited to say: Actually going back to the Noel Streatfield, I think your want for sibling views might work with Apple Bough (I think it's rather badly called Travelling Shoes now), although he isn't ill (mostly) it's got the siblings being dragged round for their genius brother (that they love very much) and could fit in.
White Boots (Skating shoes) is probably her best convalescence story though but it does have her siblings involved.

Nancy has mumps in Arthur Ransome's Winter Holiday
Tom's brother has measles in Tom's Midnight Garden

How about Pig Heart Boy?

I thought straight away of Marianne Dreams…

hmmm, the Velveteen Rabbit? (Scarlet fever).

‘I can jump puddles’, I think it’s about recovering from polio (read it a very long time ago).

The horse whisperer
(no siblings in it though)

The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Heidi.

I know they're Victorian, but I don't think they were particularly virtuous? Although a long time since I read them.

Country boy by Bernard Ashley published 1990

The Grey King, one of the Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.
The illness is only covered at the beginning but leads to a trip to stay and convalesce.
Although part of a series (which as a whole is fantastic), it can be read on its own without feeling in the dark about the previous books.

I also have shadowy memories of a Jacqueline Wilson - 'The Worst Thing about my Sister' - which isn't exactly a long illness one but is centred on a sibling and the question of the parental relationship being different between the 2 children.

Not a book, but I really recommend the film My Neighbour Totoro. It's about a family moving to the countryside to be closer to their mum in a recoperation hospital

The Ghost of Grainne OMalley is good too. The main character has cerebal pallsey rather than an illness, but it covers the frustration of being too slow to keep up.

Jacqueline Wilson has an updated version of What Katy Did, just called Katy.

Katherine at Feather Ghyll is a fifties one by Anne Bradley.
Not at all moralistic.

These are wonderful suggestions - thank you SO much.

Lots of familiar ones, and lots of ones I'd not heard of too, or not thought about in this context (I'd forgotten The Grey King is a convalescent book).

The thing that's so special about Marianne Dreams is the depiction of Marianne and Mark's very different feelings about illness, and about the effort of getting well - there's so much there about their inner worlds.

The older books (Streatfeild, Hodgson Burnett, Coolidge) is that they are very girl-focused, and even Jacqueline Wilson is more a girls than a boys writer.

I can jump puddles - I had TOTALLY forgotten that book. I read it a million years ago... must have been a library book as I think I only read it once...

Films are a great idea and I'm a massive Totoro fan (did you know Miyazaki's own mother was chronically ill w spinal TB?) - I wonder if any of you brilliant people can think of films about the inner worlds of illness?

The Brothers Lionheart (Astrid Lindgren). It's a fantasy novel within a context of serious illness, and it's ambiguous how much the fantasy is part of the child's inner world/way of processing the illness. The main character is a boy aged about ten.

Ooh - great! Thank you.

Tosh's Island

Cynthia Voigt wrote Izzy Willy Nilly about a girl recovering from a car accident in which her leg was amputated. There is a lot about her recovery first in hospital then at home, the difficulties some people have with her exhaustion etc, feelings of depression. It deals with the physical a bit, but is more about the emotional side if that works?

When Marnie Was There- Joan G. Robinson (1960s proper old fashioned convalescence)

I also enjoyed Izzy Willy Nilly @Latenightreader it reminded me of another book with distinctly Izzy vibes; A Different life - Lois Keith. Late 90s story about a teenager girl who becomes ill after a virus and becomes disabled from it .

This Strange New Life by Rachel Anderson is a young adult novel about a family where two out of the three siblings become unwell with severe ME/CFS. it really goes into the family/sibling dynamic.

And Tom's under quarantine, which is why he’s living in the house where he meets Hatty (I loved that book as a child - it makes me cry buckets now).

The Wild Way Home is about a big brother who finds out that his newborn baby brother has a heart defect. I think the story only covers a few days but it’s got a hopeful ending.