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Summary: Death be not Proud
Review: The book Death Be Not Proud, by John Gunther, is a journey into a father's heart to extract a collection of heartbreaking memories of his son, a teenager named Johnny. Johnny was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer when he was very young. He had a tumor in his brain. The book goes through his tear-dropping struggle between life and death. Johnny's health declines and he gets worse and worse, the he will feel better for a little while until it starts all over again. He has doctors that try to help him by giving him medicine, but the medicine makes him sick too. The doctors try to make him feel better. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This novel is very sad and also exciting at the same time. Johnny, his friends and his family go through tremendous amounts of pain and drama. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering if he will survive. You will find it hard to put the book down for any kind of distraction. I think this is a good book. I would recommend it for people who like sad stories who are around thirteen to fourteen years and older.
Rating: 
Summary: no good book
Review: I was told i'd have to read this book at the end of my aim literature class, i picked up the book and read it. Reading this book was definitly some form of chinese torture. The book is overall no good and would put you to sleep in a second. The father who writes this book makes his son sound all high and mighty, like some athletic, nerdy, superkid. You cannot relate to the character Johnny, who loves school and this whole book drags like a saggy butt, you could skip a thousand pages and it would not matter overall this book stinks. This book is as good as licking your cats toe fungus off of a moldy peice of cheese.
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Summary: "Death" be not readable
Review: I was assigned to read the book in school as part of a section on the classics. "Death..." convinced me of what I have always suspected: that the term "classic" is little more than a title of inertia. In other words, it is not a statement of the quality or relavence of a book, but rather it is applied because some one long ago said "This is a classic!" and no one has dared to say otherwise.From the outset it is difficult to understand why "Death..." was written. It may have been to help Gunther deal with his grief. In that sense the book's maudlin, endless droning of, "my poor son is gonna die" makes Gunther seem like a boo-hooing guest on Oprah who is grabbing at 15 minutes of fame by belaboring their pain. If the book is a tribute to his son it fails because Gunther's description of him makes him sound superhuman. The boy is an athlete, a musician, excells in every school subject, is loved by everyone who meets him and is always optimistic. For cryin' out loud, why didn't the boy just operate on himself and remove the tumor? Nothing seems to be beyond him after all. There is no way a reader can relate to the plight of this supposed prodigy. If the book is to provide inspiration for other families dealing with a fataly ill child it fails in this regard too. Gunther and his wife keep the worst news of their son's condition a secret from him (of course the boy was such a genius he probably did his own medical tests and found out how bad it was). This suggests that Gunther feels deceiving your children about their condition is not only right, it is laudable. In my opinion, children have a right to know these things, and Gunther's stance is, in my eyes, abominable! In summary, "Death..." belongs with other supposed classics like "Last of the Mohicans" and "The Faerie Queen," gathering dust on the shelves of literature professors where their inertia can fade away into the shadows of books that actually inspire and enlighten.
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Summary: Miserable, boring book
Review: I picked this book up with the hope of finding a strong, moving story of a child fighting death. And, for a while, it was pretty good. But the problem is it's basic plot: child fights death. For 100-something pages. The book basically begins with "Johnny is going to die. Lemme tell you all about it. Every day of it." And so on. The plot is alright, but there needed to be more added to it to keep things interesting. It tells you of his slow struggle with death by nearly each excruciating day. Most of the time, it's nothing interesting at all! It's like: Johnny went in for testing. Now I'm going to tell you all about his cancer, all over again. And the testing that happened, and what witty things he said to the nurse, and so on. It's awful. I skipped twenty pages, and I found I was able to pick up exactly where I had left off twenty pages ago. I had missed nothing. That's how much it drags. It's a miserable excuse for literature.
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Summary: Death Be Not Proud
Review: The book is a memoir in which a young man is diagnosed with a brain tumor when doctors know very little about them. Though he knows that he will soon die he keeps a positive yet morbid attituded about his situation. Throughout the book you can read diary entries and letters to his friends and family. I recommend this book to the in depth reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Death Be Not Proud
Review: I thought this book was good, but it was really confusing...i mean the dad is like "well i wont use all the confusing science termanlogy" and then he goes off into this huge speel of all these words i have no clue waht they mean! So..um..that is my opinion..so i'd like to see what some other ppl thought..thank you.
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Summary: Classic, Sad, and True.
Review: John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud tells about a boy who is diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of sixteen. From his fathers point of view, it tells about his will to live and to learn. Johnny Gunther was a very intellgent person. He had always dreamed of going to Harvard some day. During his fifteen months of cancer, Johnny was always enthusiastic about living. If you saw him on the street you would never have guessed that this boy has brain cancer and is going to die. Johnny had a very strong look on life. At one point in the book Johnny said, " I
have so much to do, and so little time to do it!" During his illness Johnny would always keep up with schoolwork. He rarely complaned about pain. All he really cared about was making the
last few months of his life worth living. When Johnny died it simply said on his tombstone, Death, thou shalt DIE! This was one of the best books I have ever read. I found myself reading for hours not even realising that I had turned the page. I really respect the Gunther family for being so strong during very hard times.
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Summary: A Sad Tail
Review: Adrienne Guidry Mrs. Smith American Lit/6th 14 May 2001 Amazon Book Review In John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud he gives the detailed fathers point of view of his sons struggle to live. His son Johnny is diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of sixteen and has a very small chance of living to see his next birthday. While Gunther tries to be objective throughout the book his pain shows through quite often as he depicts the horror and pain that his son had to endure. Gunther mainly centers around his son, and his strong will to live and his study of everything. His son loves to learn he was constantly, even when very ill diligently working on his schoolwork. He always wanted to know more, and then the more he knew he only wanted to know more. The book is a memoir of his trials during his son's illness. While he and his wife try to be strong for their son, Gunther is adamant in stating that his wife was the glue that held the family together. He constantly gives her more credit than anyone in making Johnny's last months peaceful and full of life. The shear audacity that is shown by Johnny when he is faced by death is amazing to me. I really consider the strength shown by this family to make this book worth reading. Just to see the way this family came together and loved one another in the worst of time is amazing to me. I found it very comforting to know that even though horrible things do happen someone was strong enough to let the rest of the world know that life goes on. The world does not end and the person who is ill can only go to a better place. I think that throughout the book Gunther foreshadows his son's death with the comments he makes. He may not conceal it like some other authors but the message still gets sent loud and clear. You are able to understand that even though you know Johnny will die he will have better days, sooner or later. The only thing that I found disappointing was that even though I knew Johnny would die somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped he would live. Even though I knew he was going to die, it is human nature to wish that someone would live and I die. I am the one that will always wish for a different outcome than the one I know is going to happen and this time is no different. I sincerely thought that maybe they would find some cure for him and for all of the others that suffer from his disease but I was wrong. The book left me feeling alone and with no hope, but then I remembered the strength and perseverance of Frances and it made everything all right. I made me feel better about myself and the world at large that has to suffer with this everyday. Although I was left empty handed so to speak. I felt as though the strength and the courage of John and Frances Gunther were the strength and courage every family would receive while going through such a tough time. The same strength my family and I felt when my father was diagnosed with cancer. You never know where it comes from but miraculously it is there, never fading. Well now you all know how I feel about this book and I wish you all would do the same. I am interested to know how you feel about it and how you feel about the whole subject of brain tumors. Once again I want to salute the parents of Johnny Gunther who through a terrible ordeal remembered every detail and were able to share that with their readers.
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Summary: Soooooo sad!!
Review: This is the sadest novel I have ever read! I read it my freshman year, as like most students, I had to force myself through the first few chapters. But once the plot started to unfold, about a a young boy's life as he is diagnossed with cancer, I found it very easy to read. I really liked this book and you should buy it, but keep tissues near.
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Summary: Sharing With My Daughter
Review: Death Be Not Proud, the made for television movie, was filmed in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts. This is where I grew up. I was talking to my daughter about different books that I had read and had made a great impression on my life. This was one of those books. I was 8 years old when my brother died of a brain tumor. My mother would take us to see the filming of the movie. The whole town "shut down" the night it was to be aired. It was very painful to watch the movie as a family. It was beautifully done and I still remember it all vividly. My younger sister was too young to remember any of this. When she was in the seventh grade she did a book report on it. It was probably the first time that she could relate to our family situation when our brother was dying.I am ordering the book for my children so that I may share a part of my life with them.
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