Fenn is our second son (Bug2) and has a rare form of drug resistant epilepsy. We found it really hard to find books that had a character in it who looked like him, a character he could relate to and make him feel more 'normal'. Isobelle, Fenn's real life friend, has two mums, again she had never seen a colouring book with her family in it and so one day Mummy Bug decided she had a new mission! To create not just a colouring book but social stories about children with different disabilities and family backgrounds.
Just like Fenn and Isobelle most of the characters in this book are based on real children. This first book, a colouring book, we wanted to include a real mix of children, some with disabilities and some without. What we didn't want to do however is highlight all these 'differences' we wanted to make all of these subtle, because these children are normal and not only do we want these children to see themselves in a book and think 'oh cool he's got a hat like me', it is really important that like the LGBTQ+ and BAME movements we all work towards normalising differences, challenge stereotypes, talk openly about disabilities and encourage acceptance.
So in the colouring book itself there is no mention of Fenn's helmet or Harry's hearing aid at all. However, if your children do ask questions we have pdfs free to download and a page where you can meet the characters to learn a little more about them. At the bottom of each page is a short sentence to help you identify the character i.e 'Fenn loves to play catch at the park.'
Find out more about the characters here
Free PDFs to download about the characters and activities can be found here
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More exciting news: work has already started on a range of picture book which do talk more about certain disabilities. These will be produced to show children that although these children have extra challenges to deal with in life they are still children who want to play and have fun, and we hope they will encourage all readers to be one of Fenn's friends too. We are aiming to have the first book published early next year which is about epilepsy. More books will follow about hearing loss, limb loss and having a stoma.
We are obviously aware that the current range of characters only cover some disabilities, as the range progresses we aim to introduce new characters.
Finally, if you haven't purchased a copy of the colouring book yet you can do so here
50p from the sale of each of the first 2000 copies sold will go direct to Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal (Charity Number 1043603)
The Grand Appeal helps support Bristol Children's Hospital where Fenn is a regular visitor. Find out more about the Grand Appeal here
If you are a hospital, charity working with children or a school looking for larger orders of the book please get in touch to discuss the discounted prices available.
Building 12B
Vantage Point Business Village
Mitcheldean
Gloucestershire
GL17 0DD
Tel: 07931147955
Email: info@booksforbugs.co.uk