Aroha’s Way - clearing bookshelves wherever she goes
Soaring demand for a Kiwi picture book aimed at helping children manage anxiety and other “big emotions” has led to a second print run just three months after it was first published, and may sell out again, with hundreds of copies already swallowed up by waiting lists.
The Mental Health Foundation, who helped launch the book through the Media Grants programme they run with Like Minds, Like Mine, believe Aroha’s Way – A Children’s Guide Through Emotions could be a useful tool for parents who want to help children manage their emotions and open up about their mental distress experiences.
In June this year, 2000 copies of Aroha’s Way sold out in less than three weeks after being released. The most recent print run of 4000 copies was nearly fully booked via waitlist, which included bookseller Whitcoulls – the first major book store to stock the book. Other buyers include individuals, independent booksellers, and schools, Te Kura Kaupapa Māori and Early Childhood Centres across the country.
Aroha’s Way takes readers on a young girl’s journey through four emotions associated with anxiety – nervousness, fear, worrying thoughts and apprehension – and provides simple yet effective ways to help manage them.
Aroha helps children understand they are never alone and teaches them breathing techniques, mindfulness and how to connect with others by sharing their worries.
Bex Lipp, who owns publishing company Wilding Books and created the book with award-winning author and illustrator Craig Phillips, is delighted with the book’s success and believes it is working to empower New Zealand tamariki.
“We’ve had feedback from parents who say their children are now ‘breathing like Aroha’. Even kids with selective mutism - anxiety so severe the children can’t speak - have been recognising themselves and opening up conversations around their feelings. However, this book is for all children, as we all experience these emotions.
“By normalising anxiety, we hope this book helps children before their often everyday emotions and worries spiral into something more serious,” Lipp says.
According to the Ministry of Health, eight percent, or around 57,000 Kiwi kids, experience “significant” social, emotional and behavioural difficulties[1]. Living with anxiety can sometimes go hand-in-hand, or be a part of, these challenging experiences.
Research shows that early intervention can reduce the risk or severity of certain types of mental health issues in later childhood, adolescence or adulthood. This can also improve children’s developmental, emotional, academic and social outcomes[2].
This is why Lipp, who has openly shared her own story about being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, along with experiences of clinical depression, anxiety, self-harm and several suicide attempts, wanted to produce the book - to help kids before they have to go through what she did
“Aroha’s Way is the book I wish I had. I had very big emotions as a kid, many of which I didn’t know how to control. That’s what led me towards a crisis. Thankfully, I learned to rewire my brain, and to think differently, so I wasn’t drowning in my negative thoughts. I wanted to help kids understand that process as early as possible.”
Lipp says although the book is recommended for five to 10 year olds, some parents have been reading it to children as young as two and three, and she has been receiving feedback that even teenagers and parents alike are benefiting from the book.
The New Zealand Mental Health Media Grants were first established in 2007 as a partnership between the Mental Health Foundation and the Like Minds, Like Mine Programme.
Previous projects have been successful in challenging people’s perceptions of the experience of mental distress and the journey to recovery by producing emotive and thought-provoking current affairs packages, plays, music, art exhibitions, magazine articles, documentaries and more.
Applications for the 2019 Like Minds, Like Mine and Mental Health Foundation Creative and Media Grants opened on 26 August and close on 11 October. Registrations are here.
Ends
“Aroha’s Way is the book I wish I had”
– Co-creator Bex Lipp
Media information
For further media information, images and interviews on Aroha’s Way, please. Contact Siobhan Waterhouse, Mr Fahrenheit Publicity in +64 22 126 4149 or siobhan@mrfahrenheit.nz
For further information on the Mental Health Foundation Media Grants programme, please contact Danielle Whitburn on info@mediagrants.org.nz
