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Michael Rosen's Sticky McStickstick : the friend who helped me walk again ISBN: 9781529502404
Rosen, Michael and Ross, Tony
Published by Walker Books, 2021
Along with Tony Ross's wonderfully wacky and very funny illustrations, we have poet Michael Rosen telling us about his experience of learning to walk again after very serious illness. In March 2020 he developed Covid and was put to sleep in hospital for 40 days, and when he was brought out of the coma, his leg muscles were so atrophied that he couldn't stand or walk. The book starts at this point as doctors and nurses and physios begin the long process of helping him get back on his feet. It must have been agonising at the time, but Rosen develops the story with such panache that the whole experience is viewed in a light-hearted way, particularly his relationship to his walking stick, which he named Sticky McStickstick. On the very back page he gives us more information about exactly what he went through and how wonderful all the people in hospital have been to him. He talks to children directly about being seriously ill: 'When we're ill, we change, don't we? And then we do what we can to get better. People help us.....Sometimes we get fed up and sad about these things. I find that writing about it helps me. It cheers me up. Sometimes reading about these things helps me too.' Right On, Michael!
Age: 4+