Completed and awaiting illustrator

This book follows the story of a boy who recognises that his mum; his best friend and toy, has started to play with him less frequently.  He, as a child, questions what he had done to cause this reluctance or avoidance.  Drawing on his life experiences he comes to the conclusion that he must have hurt her or displayed other poor friendship skills. Time passes, and his guilt grows.  Upon realising his feelings, the Grandmother takes him to visit his mum in hospital and he learns the truth alongside a way he can stop blaming himself and help his mum.

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Even in this modern day, illness is a common theme in a family, a fact highlighted during my years Teaching but parents often don’t address it in the home.  This leads to emotional issues arising.  As such, I aim for this to be used, as I have, to be a conversation starter and way for children to understand a difficult topic.  It also lends itself to a simple pleasure read or to link with a `People Who Help Us’ topic and role play.

 

Main selling points:

• It has been used with positive results already

• It draws on a theme and emotions familiar with all children

• It is not country specific and thus could be used across the world.

 

Word count:

1050 words

 

Text features:

•          I would be happy to create lesson ideas / plans if these were deemed helpful. In this case web links for Teacher Plans (with tech support) would be required.

•          This book would benefit from being an ebook too so that Teachers could use it on the interactive whiteboard.

 

Market and Competition -  Primary readership:

• 2 to 6 year olds (Foundation Stage / Year one plus home reading)

• The content addresses a worldwide issue.  As such, it could potentially be used across many countries.

 

Competition:

·Mums Don't Get Sick! by Marylin Hafner · Walker Books · Paperback · 25 pages · ISBN 0744547229

• The Huge bag of worries by Virginia Ironside · Hachette Children's · Paperback · 32 pages · ISBN 0340903171

• Going to the Doctor by Anne Civardi · Usborne · Paperback · 16 pages · ISBN 0746066643

• Hippo Owns Up: A Book about Telling the Truth by Sue Graves · Hachette Children's Group · Paperback · 32 pages · ISBN 1445147203

 

1. Mum’s Don’t Get Poorly approaches the theme in a similar manner to the books above.  It explores the issue from the child’s viewpoint in a fun but realistic way.

2. These books tend to address umbrella issues, whereas my book focuses on the specific issue of a poorly close member of the family.  Whilst this specificity may seem limiting, it is also an area which is currently not written about and thus is needed by families across the UK (as evidenced in my years teaching and parenting).