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ADHD, Tics & Me! : A Story to Explain ADHD and Tic Disorders/Tourette Syndrome ISBN: 9781787758919
Kennedy, Sophie, Ozer, Susan and Takon, Inyang
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2022
This very comprehensive book about ADHD and tics in children is told by Jamie, a boy of almost ten, who has both. It is interactive in parts where Jamie asks you, the reader, about yourself and spaces are left to fill in. In two parts, the first is about Jamie himself, and the second about him and his very special Granddad and his friends in the after-school Tic Club. Really more about tics than ADHD, it does make clear that the two are often combined, which can be confusing as to which condition is causing problems. We learn a great deal about Jamie's 'cool' family, his likes and dislikes, his friends, his pets, and his not-so-friends at school who tease him about his tics, the difference in ordinary tics that many children have and the more severe degree called Tourette Syndrome, which is what he and his friends in the Tic Club suffer from. Sometimes Jamie gets in trouble with teachers who don't know him because he has both vocal and motor ticks, and they think he is trying it on. But he also has friends in class who support him. In the second section of the book, we meet Jamie's Granddad who is a wonderful support and who explains that Jamie is like the very rare and unusual upside-down rainbow that can occur occasionally. It's a 'smile in the sky', and when they fly kites together, Jamie likes to think about a happy, smiley rainbow. When Granddad suggests that Jamie should learn as much as he can about his tics, he takes the idea to the Tic Club and they and their teacher decide to try it out on the Internet. There follows some 18 questions and answers they discover, all of which are here, and this is a really extensive set of facts and information about tics. After Jamie signs off his story, six of his friends in the Tic Club add short versions of their stories and how their tics have affected them. At the end there is a list of Further Resources, including books, useful organisations and websites. This is a truly comprehensive book, written in child-friendly text with good black and white illustrations throughout. Inevitably, there is a certain amount of repetition, but this in no way affects the quality of the material. Available from Hive, Amazon, bookshops, and the publisher: www.jkp.com.
Age: 9+