This beautifully handled and sensitively written book is "Little Mole's a Whirlwind" by Anna Llenas and it's one of the best picture books we've seen that talks about ADHD / ADD / Autism in a way that children will understand and adults will also feel perfectly summarises what it's like to be the parents, teacher or guardian for a child that has these conditions.
We tread warily here, purely because these are such misunderstood and misdiagnosed conditions and it's easy to think that most busy and active children show the symptoms, but Anna delves into what it feels like from Little Mole's side, what it's like to have too much energy to switch off your mind or to focus on just one thing.
Little Mole has a fairly miserable time at school. He struggles to pay attention in class, he's definitely a whirlwind, the other school children often avoid him and won't play with him because they think he's useless, reckless and hyperactive and with the final end of term project coming up, there's the anxiety of what Little Mole can do for his project to add to his stress.
Thankfully Little Mole's parents spy an advert in the newspaper for a fantastic after-school place that might finally help Little Mole and settle his mind. Miss Rabbit enters their lives and for the first time she shows that there are ways to help, but most of all she does something for Little Mole that no one else has.
She listens.
Over the course of the next few weeks Little Mole and Miss Rabbit do lots of things together, make things, bake things but most of all talk about his feelings and how to use his energy.
So when his final project time finally rolls around, Little Mole has a surprise for everyone. Including us readers! (Which obviously we're not going to spoil for you). It's such a heart-meltingly touching moment that it'll make you feel like cheering for Little Mole but we'll say no more than that.
This book is fantastic, really special and we can see this being an amazingly useful story to use in schools and indeed in sessions like Miss Rabbit's, to help other children like Little Mole feel that they're also represented in books and that they do not need to feel demonised or put upon.
Truly amazing.
C's best bit: Little Mole's end of term surprise for everyone, which is such a lovely moment.
Daddy's favourite bit: Intelligently put together and written, fantastically illustrated (with some truly awesome cardboard and papercrafting) but above all the first properly sensitively written children's picture book about ADD / ADHD that we've seen on the blog. Breathtakingly good, everyone needs to read this one.
"Little Mole's a Whirlwind" by Anna Llenas is out now, published by Templar (kindly supplied for review).