Can You Hear Me? is a work of fiction penned for children by author Y. Y. Chan. The book handles some difficult themes, but it is also a work of Christian fiction that aims to pass on the message of God and faith during the storyline as well. We focus on a young girl called Renee, who discovers that her father is suffering from cancer. Renee examines the nature of prayer and asks important questions about why God would allow this to happen to her father. Through her pain and her experiences, Renee comes to understand the true nature of faith and how she can remain connected to her father even if he does go to Heaven.

Comforting and relatable, author Y. Y. Chan has crafted a really heartfelt and helpful volume for young Christian readers who may be going through a tough time. This is a book for a specific purpose in a young child’s life, but I feel that its message of love and faith could be read by any family at any time to understand the central themes and Christian ideas better. It is a powerful and emotive text, and I thought that the diary entry style of the work was highly effective because it feels as though Renee is speaking directly to the reader when she examines her thoughts and expresses her feelings so freely. Overall, I would recommend Can You Hear Me? as a compassionate work that is sure to help many young readers overcome doubts and questions.

Losing a loved one is difficult at any age. But for a child, it’s unthinkable. Cancer has a way of infiltrating the lives of so many families. When young Renee learns her father has cancer, she goes through a wide range of emotions from fear and disbelief to intense sadness, especially as her father’s condition worsens and he eventually dies. At first, Renee doesn’t want to tell anyone about her father’s illness, not even her best friend. Writing in her journal is her only solace and she keeps lists of what she’s thankful for. Most important, she prays.

Y.Y. Chan’s children’s story, Can You Hear Me?, traces a young girl’s journey through her father’s illness and death. The story is told in the first person from Renee’s perspective in a collection of journal entries where Renee records the stages of her father’s illness and the growing fears she experiences. The young girl also shares her prayers, her faith, her growing lists, and challenging questions, like the understandable question surrounding her fear that she did something wrong to cause her father’s illness. The journal entries include conversations with her father and his encouragement that she'll keep on writing and reading her stories to him, even when he’s in heaven. She asks her father if he’ll be able to hear her when he’s in heaven. He assures her that he will, but the question keeps resurfacing, even after his death: “Can you hear me, Daddy?” It reinforces the bond of love as she and her mother recover from the loss and the painful ensuing grief. This is a powerful story that will help readers of all ages deal with their grief. Told with care and compassion.