If I Get to Five What Children Can Teach Us About Courage and Character [Paperback]

This book is a testament to the extraordinary depth, powers, and resiliency of children's spirits. Marion Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

IfI Get to Fiveis a one-of-a-kind book by a one-of-a-kind human being. The medical world knows him as Fred Epstein, M.D., the neurosurgeon who pioneered life-saving procedures for previously inoperable tumors in children. His patients and their families know him simply as Dr. Fred, the miracle man who has extended them both a healing hand and an open heart.

Throughout his career Epstein's young patients have been his most important teachers and trusted guides. They are children whooften by sheer force of willhave refused to relinquish life and all its gifts. In this inspiring book, these children teach us the lessons we all need to learn in order to live life to the fullestlessons about seizing the moment and facing our deepest fears, about embracing the joy and wonder of everyday life. Most of all, they teach lessons about uncommon couragethe courage to do what's hardest, to believe in what we don't understand, to love without boundaries.

If I Get to Fivetakes us inside a world unlike any other, from the high-stakes, high-tech operating room where life and death are separated by a heartbeat to the sickrooms and recovery rooms where parents discover the limits and power of their faith. But most compelling of all is the journey inside the hearts, minds, and souls of the wisest children you will ever encounter.

No one who reads this remarkable book will ever look at childrenor adversityin the same way.

To shake hands with Dr. Fred Epstein is to be touched by an angel in a scrub suit. Steve Dunleavy, New York Post

A magnificent tribute to human resiliency and hopefulness. From Dr. Epstein's portrayals of children who have found meaning amid horror to his own superbly interwoven autobiography of a boyhood marred by academic faill³Ë