cover image My Mommy Has AIDS

My Mommy Has AIDS

Lynda Arnold. Dream Publishing(PA), $18.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-1-892073-01-3

The author's own life inspired this pair of platitudinous books, both narrated by David, a boy modeled and named after her son. In the first and more effective title, the author, a nurse who became infected with the HIV virus after being stuck by a needle at work, faces the facts about AIDS head-on. Through David's first-person narration, she offers a credible, childlike perspective: he observes that his mother cares for him when he gets sick, yet sometimes she ""gets more sick than any of us."" In spots, the explanations are a bit murky (for instance, David makes the misleading comparison that ""Having AIDS is like having a really bad cold or flu that never goes away""), but the author handles the seriousness of the disease delicately (""If mommy dies, I will be very sad""). While emphasizing that AIDS ""is not an easy disease to catch,"" the author offers some sensible, cautionary advice. In a complete about-face from her no-nonsense tone in the first title, Arnold's second is a jolting juxtaposition of the ethereal and the pragmatic. David, who has ""dark skin,"" describes his arrival at his ""light-skinned"" adoptive parents' home as a collaborative effort between the celestial ""angels of love"" and the ""special adoption workers"" they sent to help link them up. The crayon and marker drawings contributed by an array of children suit the first book, with its message about the universality of AIDS victims; in the second, however, readers may be confused by how different David and his sister look from spread to spread. Ages 4-8. (Nov.) FYI: Proceeds from the sales of these books will benefit foundations and resource centers relevant to each title.