Sanitizing Chronic Illness?: Representations of Cystic Fibrosis in Contemporary Children's and Young Adult Literature.

The article focuses on three contemporary representations of cystic fibrosis (CF) in fiction for younger readers. It analyzes and compares the graphic novel Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (2016), the children's novel Caleb and Kit (Beth Vrabel 2017), and the Young Adult novel Five Feet Apart (Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis 2018) from a literary disability studies perspective. Through an auto-ethnographic exploration and with "experiential knowledge of disability" (Bolt 131) in mind, the article examines which symptoms of CF are made presentable to the reader and which possible experiences are sanitized, romanticized, distorted, or omitted entirely. Ghosts and Five Feet Apart sanitize the illness experience, trying to spare readers from having to explore pain or unpleasant physical symptoms such as phlegm and digestive issues, and romanticize CF as a source of wisdom and living in the moment. Caleb and Kit, on the other hand, manages to convey a more multifaceted image of living with CF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]