Review of "Jamie’s Journey: Cancer from the Voice of a Sibling" by Sharon Wozny, Studio Story Monster, Narrated by Stewart Joiner Davis, Illustrated by Melissa Bailey

Paperback Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)
Audiobook Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)

Studio Story Monster & narrator Stewart Joiner Davis bring one of the most heart wrenching and emotionally-charged books of the past year to life in this magnificent audiobook!

One of the great things about literature is in presenting characters and scenarios that readers can see themselves in. It allows a spotlight to be shone on the things we don't usually address and/or talk about—the elephants in the room, the unspoken and often-uncomfortable truths. This book shines a spotlight and gives a voice to people who don't usually get it: the families and, specifically, the siblings of those battling a life-altering diagnosis like cancer. It acknowledges these individuals and their unique struggles, feelings, and experiences, which so often get overshadowed and unrecognized.

Jamie’s Journey: Cancer from the Voice of a Sibling is a gentle, heartfelt story about pediatric cancer as seen through the eyes of the healthy sibling. It follows thirteen-year-old Jamie after her ten-year-old sister, Jordan, is diagnosed with a brain tumor and begins surgery, chemotherapy, hospital stays, and outpatient treatments.

We move with Jamie from “life was normal” to the moment everything changes. There are sleepovers, shopping trips, softball practices, and dance lessons one minute, then headaches, scans, hospital rooms, machines, “pokes,” chemo, waiting areas, fear, and exhaustion the next. Cancer barges into the family like an unwelcome storm cloud and suddenly every routine, every relationship, and every emotion gets rearranged.

This book gives permission for the physically healthy sibling to feel everything: worry, relief, curiosity, anger, pride, inspiration, guilt, jealousy, selfishness, loneliness, and love. Jamie misses activities, feels forgotten by her parents, resents the attention Jordan receives, and then feels guilty for having those thoughts. That honesty is the book’s emotional core. It does not shame Jamie for her “ugly” feelings. Instead, it shows that those feelings are normal when cancer turns the whole family upside down.

Where this book really shines is in how unapologetically it names the “unacceptable” emotions that siblings are often ashamed to admit. Jamie resents missing softball and dance. She notices that Jordan gets the attention, the presents, the sympathy, the toys, and the family’s time. She misses date nights with her dad and shopping trips with her mom. She wonders if she even matters anymore.

And the book does not scold her for it.

That is huge.

Instead, Jamie’s Journey makes it clear that these reactions do not make Jamie a bad kid, an evil person, or an unloving sister. They make her human. Cancer does not only attack the patient. It hits the whole family. It bends routines, drains parents, changes relationships, steals normalcy, and leaves siblings trying to be “strong” while their own hearts are quietly breaking.

The story becomes especially moving when Jamie’s parents finally sit with her and reassure her that she is still loved and valued, and later when Jordan tells Jamie that Jamie is her hero. That moment brings the book full circle. Jamie is not just the “other child” in the family. She is also carrying part of the journey. She is scared, confused, and hurting, but she is also brave, loving, and deeply important.

Can you imagine being a child in a similar situation as Jaimie? Now you have a book that acknowledges, validates, and helps you work through your feelings and experience.

Sharon Wozny is able to draw on years of experience working with cancer patients and their families through the Children’s Cancer Network, and that authenticity shows. There is a genuine understanding here of how pediatric cancer can make healthy siblings feel invisible. Jamie is not being dramatic. She is grieving the life her family used to have.

Melissa Bailey’s illustrations (in the paperback version) are a major part of why those emotions land. The artwork has a soft, hand-drawn pencil style with selective color that feels intimate and personal, almost like sketches from a family’s own journal. Jamie’s face does a lot of heavy lifting: the worry in the hospital room, the tight anger in the waiting area, the hollow sadness of sitting alone in a corner, the quiet pride as she hugs her bald little sister, and the stunned tenderness when Jordan calls her a hero.

But what we really want to focus on for the rest of the review is the audiobook version and the extraordinary narration by the phenomenal young narrator Stewart Joiner Davis!

First of all, can we say how well-produced the whole Studio Story Monster catalog of audiobooks is? We're constantly impressed. Each of these audiobooks opens and ends with the familiar Story Monsters jingle, which is actually really nice and welcoming. It gets you in the mood to hear something sweet and comforting. They also begin with the young, talented narrator explaining to you how this read-along experience will work, encouraging you to follow along with your version of the book (paperback, hardcopy, ebook, etc.). Something else we think we forgot to mention in the past—but is super cool and useful—is the page-turning sound that prompts readers to turn to the next page. That's actually helpful!

Anyway, Stewart Joiner Davis is a gem and a joy to listen to. We remember him from his performance in the Chatty the Hen Pheasant and The Great Animal Escape audiobooks, which he also knocked out of the park! He reads this book very cleanly, calmly, and at a really good pace. This pacing is important because it allows the young readers to follow what's happening while also not getting impatient and losing focus. Ten minutes is a perfect time for an audiobook like this, and Davis nails it. Nothing seems rushed or drawn out. It's just right.

Check it out here!