Mummy’s got Bipolar is a new illustrated children’s book which will be out in mid-December. This book has been self-published and financially supported by over 40 different backers. The book has been written to help children and families to understand that having a parent with Bipolar is not unusual and its ok to talk about it.
The writer is Sonia Mainstone-Cotton, an early years practitioner and consultant, who works with children, families and professionals. Sonia was aware of how hard people find it to talk about Bipolar, and to explain it to children. Sonia’s own Mum has Bipolar and she wanted to use children’s books to explain to her own children about the illness but was unable to find any books for young children. For this reason, Sonia decided to write the book; it is a gentle story of a family with a mum, dad, 2 daughters and 2 guniea pigs. The story gently introduces Bipolar to children and enables families and professionals to start talking about the illness. The story has been illustrated by Jon Birch. Jon is multimedia artist with over 30 years professional experience he has won awards with Paperhorse for the creation of cowforce.com
Sonia and Jon launched the campaign to self-publish the book. 500 copies are being printed, and a number of these will be given free to local schools, nurseries and children centres. Books will be for sale at £7.99 via Sonia’s website www.soniamainstone-cotton.com
