Sugar Was My Best Food

Diabetes and Me

Plot Summary

Diabetes brought big changes for 11-year-old Adair and his family. He learned to prick himself to test his blood-sugar level and got used to two insulin shots a day. For a while he was too weak to run track or ride his bike. He often felt lonely and weird, different from the other kids. Worst of all, he could hardly ever eat candy, his "best" food.

A true story about a boy who has learned to manage his illness and continues to do the things he loves.

Awards

A 2000 Parents' Choice Approved Winner

Reviews

"In a voice so genuine readers will think they are being directly addressed, 11-year-old Adair Gregory describes his learning, at the age of 9, that he has diabetes. . . . His remarkable attitude and lack of self-pity will help draw readers into the book, as will the simple pencil sketches, contributed by Mary Jones. Adair also gives his mailing and e-mail addresses: he wants, he says, to help some kid with diabetes 'get his life back.' Mission accomplished, Adair." Booklist

"What is truly exceptional here is the boy's emotional candor: his squeamishness about daily injections, his frustrations about taking inconvenient blood-sugar readings, his fear about his physical well-being, . . . and, most of all, the loneliness of being different." School Library Journal

Associated Keywords
illness, chronic