Bow Ties Butterflies & Band-Aids: A Journey Through Childhood Cancers and Back to Life

In Bow Ties, Butterflies and Band-Aids, author Lindsey VanDyke shares what it was like to be diagnosed at the age of eleven, and again at thirteen and twenty-one, with cancer. In her memoir, she directs readers on the journey she, her family and her friends took down dark hospital corridors-and out into the world. She describes what she calls a happy childhood. Here's the proof, because while her cancer transformed her experience and, ultimately, the direction of her life, it also shaped the woman and survivor she would become. The bulk of the often-playful narrative is the author's firsthand account, while her mother, father, a host of childhood pals and, later, her fiancee offer vignettes that illustrate their grief, confusion and anger. These stirring anecdotes portray how cancer ultimately affects an entire community, at times shaking it to its foundations. The telltale scars it leaves behind, however, ultimately mark the measure of that community's happiness and joy.