Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library | books ~ lost_in_the_stacks_alex_the_life_of_a

Lost in the Stacks: Alex: The Life of a Child

A bereaved father's tender portrait of his daughter, Alex.

Famed sports writer Frank Deford lost his daughter Alexandra to cystic fibrosis when she was only eight years old.

In Alex: The Life of a Child Deford describes how the disease ravishes his beautiful, lively, loving daughter and the family's struggle to cope with this devastating illness.

"When a child has cystic fibrosis," Deford writes, "she never simply lives. She must be kept alive." Despite the grimness of the subject, this is really a beautiful book about a charming, spirited child whose brief life enriched many others. Kleenex recommended.