Interspecies Identification
Author pens stories to help kids with real hurdles
By Brian Truitt
Courtesy of the Elijah Foundation
Sometimes, simply being able to identify with a little bipolar bear does wonders for a child diagnosed with the same condition.
Sharon Liddle first realized this back in 2002 when she wrote “Eli, the Bipolar Bear” about her 9-year-old son Elijah’s struggles, and she’s understanding it more every day as executive director and founder of the Elijah Foundation, a Norfolk-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reaching out to children who have disabilities, disorders, dysfunctions or are just feeling separated from their peers. How is she doing it? Through the inherent magic of a children’s storybook.
“Most resources that deal with disorders and disabilities are geared toward adults, and they talk about the disorder and about the children, but there aren’t any resources for the children to pick up, something tangible for them to understand what they’re going through,” explains Liddle, who turns 43 this month. “My son had nothing that was going to help him understand bipolar disorder at all.”
She thinks this might be in part because society generally focuses on educating the parents. But when Elijah, who’s almost 17 now, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after having lost friends because of his anger issues and being disruptive in class, she was as confused as he was.
Liddle couldn’t find anything substantial to help the both of them, so she hatched the story of a little bear named Eli who had the same problems. He visits the Wise Old Bear, and together they discuss that Eli has a chemical imbalance and his brain cells aren’t working well together, and they have to be treated to function like everybody else. The old bear prescribes that he takes tasty little fish every morning for breakfast to help control his mood swings and, after a period of time, Eli realizes he can fit it in better and that life is returning to a more normal state.
Both “Eli, the Bipolar Bear” and “Kasey, the Stressed-Out Silver Dolphin” (the book about a child’s test-taking anxiety was also developed in 2003) sold out in their initial short print runs. With a new publishing company under her belt, Liddle has rolled out a new edition and more copies of “Eli,” which has already changed the lives of many children for the better. In addition, she penned “Elle, the Little Lost Wombat,” which reflects the journey of her daughter Kate, whom she adopted from Ukraine five years ago.
Liddle’s not stopping there, however. She’s hoping to raise enough funding to publish her next book, “Wheezy, the Asthmatic Zebra.” That’s only one of the 70 different topics that her foundation focuses on, each with a corresponding animal to help make living a child’s life a little bit easier. “Whether they’re left-handed or they have sickle cell anemia or asthma,” Liddle says, “we have a story for them.”
(July 2009)
Tags: books, children's books, Elijah, Sharon Liddle