"The House of Brave Cowards" – that is what the head physician calls his orthopedic hospital, where children are, quite literally, put back on their feet. This literary doctor had a real-life prototype: the very same Dr. Ilizarov, whose name we know well thanks to the medical apparatus he invented.
The main character, third-grader Nadya, ends up in the hospital because she needs a complex surgery, as she has had to use crutches to get around since she was a little girl. In reality, Nadya faces not just one surgery, but several, and her treatment will take at least a year, if not much longer. But what are a few measly years of surgeries, anesthesia, metal frames, and therapy, if a grand prize awaits you at the end of this marathon—healthy and beautiful legs! Nadya is willing to wait and endure. But then, the doctor offers her a new treatment method that is supposed to help Nadya in a matter of months. Yes, the temptation to agree is very strong, but her mother has a different opinion; after all, such surgeries haven't been performed before, and it seems her daughter would have to serve as a guinea pig...
What to do, how to be? Will Nadya find the courage, persistence, and patience? Will she be able to speed up her recovery? Will she have enough left in her for anything other than her own problems? You have, of course, correctly guessed that everything will work out for Nadya: in children's books about sick children, it cannot be any other way!
"The House of Brave Cowards" by Yuri Yermolaev is a kind, simple, naive book with a happy ending for readers aged 7-12.
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