This rare account of a year in the life of a doctor and clown will make you laugh, cry, and realize just how indispensable laughter is in hospitals.

In the pages of this diary, Caroline Simonds, a.k.a. Dr. Giraffe, the founder of the association Le rire médecin (Healing Laughter), recounts a year spent in a pediatric hematology unit, the start of her collaboration with hospital staff, and the fates of the children and teens she saw every day. Silliness is de rigueur; seriousness and absurdity commingle in this firsthand account. Readers will be moved to laughter and tears, admiration, and a deep belief in the absolute necessity of humor in such a setting. Reda Kateb's film On the Edge (Sur un fil) was based on this book.