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| Why do we have to move? £8 excluding P&P |
Lots of research and information available for families is largely focused on parental deployment or helping children cope with trauma. What seems to get underplayed are the more commonplace concerns facing Military children and young people. A serious aspect of military life is the problem of frequent moves which do not appear to get easier with frequency and time. Not only do the repeated moves affect children and their friendships, another difficulty for parents is answering the many question children have, for example - "why do we have to move?". Joy O'Neill from Service Children Support Network has written a lovely book to help children make sense of the moving experience. Joy shares with you the reason she felt compelled to write the story of Grace, a child coping with the anxiety of moving home, schools and life.
How did the idea for 'Why do we have to move' come about?
One morning last summer I was brushing 'my teeth when a
thought popped into my head. What about a story for Service children who are
moving home written from the child’s perspective? Does such thing exist? I
mentioned it to my husband, who smiled wryly, “I see the good idea fairy has
been again!” he laughed. I started looking on Amazon and although a few books for
Service children were available, there didn't seem to be anything exactly like
my idea.
Tell us more about how the character, Grace, emerged.
Over the next few days I found myself thinking about an imaginary
child, the main character, called Grace. I thought about her while shopping or
standing in the post office queue or walking the dog. I tried to imagine her
family, home, school, friends and hobbies and slowly the idea for the story
grew.
How did you research the book?
I approached my old school friend Lisa about the
illustrations and she sketched some ideas. There was Grace brought to life in
front of my eyes with her family and dog in beautiful ink drawings. As the book progressed with draft after draft
I realised I loved her little personality and felt very protective of her. I
secretly shared a copy with some local children and their parents and waited
for their feedback….. Would they like it or hate it? Thankfully they loved it
and more importantly related to how Grace felt about her imminent move.
You must be very excited to see the story in print- can you tell us more about getting it published?
The
publisher was positive and we set to work laying out the design in words and
pictures ready for print. After six months of planning and preparation the first
copy of the book arrived through my door at the beginning of February. I hope children enjoying
reading about Grace as much as Lisa and I enjoyed writing and illustrating this
book.
“Why do we have to move?” By Joy O'Neill can be purchased now on Amazon.
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