Be a Friend: Children Who Live with HIV Speak

``When I told the kids at school I had AIDS, they made fun of me. I told them by accident. Now I want to run away from school.'' This poignant collection aims to free children infected with AIDS or HIV from their onerous silence--and their peers from insensitivity. Most of the contributors of the brief statements and drawings here are pediatric AIDS or HIV patients at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.; a few, piercing entries come from siblings (``I really want my brother to know that I love him even if I don't always show it. There are just some times that I have to hit him back''). Although an adult hand is clearly present, particularly in a section where each bit of text begins ``I often wonder,'' the children express their emotions with wrenching candor, whether discussing living with illness, their hopes and fears, or their thoughts about God and heaven. There is room, too, for acceptance and humor: ``What will happen to my stuff and my room? (Casey will probably get most of it, but making a museum would not be such a bad idea).'' This is an eye-opening, emotionally challenging book, profits from which will be donated to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Ages 8-up. (Mar.)