Children's Books Archives • D-Mom Blog

September 23, 2019 by Leighann

Just Ask T1D Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss her diagnosis and life with type 1 diabetes and her new children’s book Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You.

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small percentage of purchases made through the links. It costs you nothing and helps support this website.)

In this interview with Trevor Noah, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talks about her life with type 1 diabetes. She tells the story about being in a restaurant when someone assumed that she was using drugs. She told the person, “If you don’t understand when someone is doing something different than you expect, just ask. Don’t presume the worst in people.”

For parents of teens and college-aged kids with diabetes, her party story is a very important lesson. People with type 1 diabetes should always let someone know that they are diabetic when they are drinking because alcohol can affect your blood sugar. People may assume you are passed out drunk when you are actually having a severe low blood sugar.

She also says, “I don’t need help all of the time. But I do sometimes. And people should know that. And you should know that about the people you love and care about.”

Watch the video:

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Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

The children in Sonia Sotomayor’s story have many different abilities and medical diagnoses. I think this is going to be a great book for children to learn about others who might be different from themselves. I can’t wait to read it!

From the book:

“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and award-winning artist Rafael Lopez create a kind and caring book about the differences that make each of us unique.

Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful.

In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges–and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same: When we come across someone who is different from us but we’re not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask.”

Purchase Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You from my affiliate Amazon. It is also available in Spanish: ¡Solo pregunta!: Sé Diferente, Sé Valiente, Sé Tú

November 5, 2018 by Leighann

Open Up Your Bag: A New Picture Book for Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Open Up Your Bag is a new picture book written by Mike Lawson for young children living with type 1 diabetes or who have a family member or friend with diabetes. Zip, zip, zip…

Image: D-Mom Blog

I had a chance to interview Mike, author of Open Up Your Bag, to find out what inspired him to write the book, why the characters are animals, who his hero is, and much more.

What I liked about the book was how cute the concept was and the character design and colors. I would have loved this book when I was a little kid. It’s a great book for kids who are new to diabetes.

If you would like your own copy, you can purchase the Open Up Your Bag picture book from Amazon.

My Interview with Open Up Your Bag author Mike Lawson

D-Kid: What inspired you to write this book?

Mike: I have always really loved children’s books. I like the illustrations and all of the different types. Some books have elaborate pictures that tell the story. Others have really simple pictures that accompany the text. There are such a large and diverse number of books to explore.

D-Kid: What is it like living with diabetes?

Mike: As you know, it sort of just depends on the day. Some days are tough, and my Dexcom alarms high or low every freaking hour. And other days I can skate through with steady BGs and not a care in the world. I guess that unpredictability makes this stuff manageable though. If I thought that every day was going to be tough, diabetes might be a lot harder.

D-Kid: Why did you decide to make the characters animals?

Mike: That’s a good question. I wanted this book to tell young people with diabetes that there are other people out there that have diabetes too. I intentionally was trying to make the characters look nothing like the people that I thought would be reading it… and I just assumed that there would be no lady penguins picking up the book. Using animals was an easy way to easily ensure that all of the characters were telling the kids reading it that there are other people out here doing what you do.

Animals are also way more interesting than humans. A book filled with four human characters is not as fun to draw as a book with a panda, penguin, raccoon, and lion. I got to use more color and shapes. People rarely have a huge mane. Drawing humans doesn’t allow me to have fun with sketching out a penguin beak. I feel that having animal characters helped me make the book a little more interesting for the audience I was drawing it for.

D-Kid: What was your favorite part of writing the book?

Mike: I really enjoy creating a color palette. For any new project, I usually start by just picking out a handful of colors that I try to stick to when illustrating. This part of the process really gets me excited to start doing the work and helps me set the tone for what I’m going to create. This is the palette I used for this book and the DiabetesDoodles.com website:

D-Kid: Who is your hero?

Mike: I look up to a lot of people. Sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury had a big impact on me. Way before I was old enough to understand his books I got to meet him and I fell in love with the idea of who he was… it had nothing to do with what he wrote. I just really wanted to be a writer. I wanted to create something permanent. As I’ve grown, I’ve come to really love his books and the pure fantasy that he writes. And I’ve also come to really appreciate how prolific he was — he wrote 27 books and published more than 600 short stories. This dude wasn’t just talented; he had hustle.

D-Kid: How long have you had diabetes?

Mike: I was diagnosed a little later than you; when I was 20 years old I found out that I had diabetes, but I was mistakenly misdiagnosed with type 2 at first. It took almost a year of unsuccessfully battling high blood sugar with diet and exercise that I finally found out I had type 1.

D-Kid: How did your diabetes affect the book?

Mike: Having diabetes certainly inspired me to write and illustrate this book. But diabetes doesn’t affect my drawing at all. When I work on a long-ish project like drawing this book, I do spend a lot of time thinking about the audience that will ultimately be seeing the finished product. So when I was doing most of the work on this book I did spend a lot of time looking at some of the resources out there for parents of children with diabetes… the different blogs and books (like your mom’s). Since I don’t have a kid with diabetes, it was helpful to read stories from those perspectives because it is a much different life than the one that I have.

More Info About Open Up Your Bag

Visit the Diabetes Doodles website for more information including downloadable coloring pages and purchase the “Open Up Your Bag” picture book for your T1D little.

Read more posts written by D-Kid Q to learn her perspective as a kid living with type 1 diabetes.

Disclosure: Mike is a longtime friend and sent us a copy of the book for review consideration. We were not compensated, and opinions are our own.

December 21, 2015 by Leighann

{Bookshelf} Go, Team Coco!

Go Team Coco Book

While we were waiting for our most recent endo visit we were pleasantly surprised to see stacks of the Coco and ESPN books about diabetes as well as the Family magazines, which are all part of the partnership between Disney and Lilly Diabetes. We are big fans of the Coco books in our house…and it’s not just Q. Her brother has copies of each Coco book and enjoys reading them together. He always insists that we also read the Q&A at the end of each book which is quite informational about the basics of diabetes and is a great tool for teaching younger classmates about diabetes in terms they can understand.

At the 2015 Children With Diabetes Friends For Life (CWD FFL), Lilly Diabetes announced the latest Disney book featuring MWD* Coco titled “Go, Team Coco!”

My kids were excited that this book has not one, but three stories. It gets their approval.

In this book (a prequel to the other Coco books?) Coco is diagnosed with diabetes, learns to manage diabetes, and finds out if she can still be a soccer player. She teaches Goofy about choosing healthy snacks (everyone should have a healthy snack during soccer) and that someone with diabetes can eat cupcakes. Coco asks her doctor if she can still play soccer and he explains that she just needs to check her blood sugar and be prepared for lows. We learn that her care team includes supportive friends who are eager to learn, her parents and aunt who take care of her, and the nurse and doctor.

As with the other books, there is a Q&A at the end of the book. This time the follow up questions are asked of the child with diabetes reading the book.

Go Team Coco Book

From Lilly: “Go, Team Coco! is three stories in one book. Readers will learn about how Coco and her family cope with her diagnosis at the hospital, the new routines they establish at home, and her first follow-up visit to the doctor. Coco, along with other Disney characters, helps readers understand that with proper planning and management, children with diabetes and their families can still have fun and do things that children without the condition can do.”

You can read most of the Coco and ESPN themed diabetes books on the T1 Everyday Magic website. (This newest one isn’t available digitally yet.) The Coco books have been translated into 30 languages and are available in 50 countries. Pediatric endocrinology offices have this line of books available at no charge to patients. If your office doesn’t have them, tell them to ask their Lilly rep to give them a supply.

*I coined the phrase MWD (monkey with diabetes) with the release of the first Coco book.

You Might Also Like…

Visit t1everydaymagic site for more diabetes resources

Introducing Coco, MWD*

Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day

More posts about Coco the Monkey with Diabetes

Diabetes at School: Lilly Diabetes Books Online

Lilly Diabetes Book

We are fans of the Lilly Diabetes books featuring Coco the Monkey. Even our child without diabetes likes them and has learned quite a bit from the Q&A at the end of each book.

I know not everyone has been able to get their hands on the Disney Coco books or the ESPN themed books. In theory all pediatric endo practices should be able to get them from their Lilly rep.

If you are looking for these books, Lilly and Disney’s t1everydaymagic website now has six books available for viewing online. What’s neat is that the website will read the stories to your child.

Many classrooms now have smartboards or other ways of showing web content to the class. This might be a fun way to introduce diabetes to younger classes.

You Might Also Like…

Visit t1everydaymagic and the Disney Spoonful site for more diabetes resources.

Introducing Coco, MWD*

Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day

More posts about Coco the Monkey with Diabetes

American Girl McKenna

This post doesn’t have much to do with diabetes, but we all know there is more to life than diabetes!

Earlier this school year Q was having issues with a girl in her class. Coincidentally she was reading an American Girl book called A Smart Girl’s Guide to Liking Herself—Even on the Bad Days: The secrets to trusting yourself, being your best & never letting the bad days bring you down. It was such a great book because it gave her some great advice on how to deal with this girl. Q ended up telling her that in order to stay friends, she needed to take a break from her. The strategy worked and they were able to finish out the school year without a major blow up.

We are big fans of the American Girl dolls, books, and movies and we are fortunate that our friends at AG send us some pretty awesome stuff from time to time (this goes back to my days as a “mommy blogger”). The Girl of the Year for 2012 is McKenna, a young gymnast who has some issues at school. It’s very fitting that she’s a gymnast given that the summer Olympics takes place this year. Q took gymnastics for a couple of years, but we stopped this spring because she has too many activities going on at once.

McKenna Doll and Book We’ve been reading McKenna’s book at bedtime and hadn’t quite finished it when her movie McKenna Shoots for the Stars aired on TV last weekend. But that didn’t stop Q from watching it even though now we know how the story ends.

From the book: “Ten-year-old McKenna has always been a good student-and great at gymnastics. So when her grades suddenly begin to fall, her teacher suggests a little extra help from a tutor. McKenna is horrified until she meets her tutor, Josie, a super-confident girl who also happens to be in a wheelchair. Josie encourages McKenna to focus on her strengths and work toward her goals one day at a time. But just as McKenna begins to shine in school, she’s sidelined with a gymnastics injury–and her confidence unravels. Now she’s worried about her grades and earning a spot on the competitive gymnastics team. Can she find a way to believe in herself again?”

Q is smitten with the doll and keeps brushing her hair over and over again. I have to say that of all the American Girl dolls, this one’s hair is almost an exact match to Q’s. Every time we get a new catalog in the mail she circles the wheelchair and this story has prompted another request for it…maybe Christmas?

I’m sure that McKenna, just like all her other dolls and animals, will develop diabetes soon and be subjected to countless blood sugar checks and injections. (Read about her doll Sophie.) And yes, every chance I get I tell my contact at American Girl that they need to make a medical ID bracelet for the dolls!

If your daughter does gymnastics or you are really into the Olympics, you might check out the McKenna doll and books.

{Lilly Diabetes Blogger Summit 2012} Disney Book Collaboration

This week I headed to Indianapolis to the Lilly Diabetes headquarters with about a dozen other bloggers for the Second Annual Blogger Summit.

I love these events because it gives me a chance to see some of my online friends in person. And it always feels like I’m reuniting with old friends.

While the day focused on exchange between us and a selection of employees including the president of the Diabetes Division Enrique Conterno, I think as parents of kids with diabetes you will be interested in the continuing collaboration between Lilly and Disney. I will definitely circle back and give you some thoughts on the event as a whole, but I wanted to share this aspect first.

These are the current Lilly Diabetes and Disney books for children. There is an additional ESPN title not shown.

The Disney Family.com website has full descriptions of each of the titles that has come out since the Coco book last summer:

Dishing It Up Disney Style

ESPN: Power Forward

ESPN: Up for the Challenge

Hannah Montana: Uptight (Oliver’s All Right)

We have not had a chance to read these books yet, but I will definitely let you know our thoughts as we read each one over the summer. The two ESPN books are geared towards newly diagnosed tweens. The Hannah Montana book is based on the episode of the same name, which aired a couple of years ago.

Flipping through the cookbook, many of the recipes look interesting and ones that my kids would actually eat. Each of the recipes features a different Disney character (not all are princesses!) and a tip. The recipes include portion sizes and carb counts. I’m appreciative that while some of the recipes have sugar, none use artificial sweeteners. We were served the brownies and cobbler for dessert and both were really good. The brownies were a bit small, but at 11 carbs each, who am I to complain?

I think it’s a testament to both Lilly Diabetes and Disney that they are continuing to develop these books and add content to the Family.com site. I think we’ll see more from this collaboration…hopefully there are more Coco books and the addition of teen books down the line. I’d like to see the characters in the books move past the newly diagnosed stage and begin dealing with issues that T1 kids face in school, sports, and their every day lives. Too bad Coco can only say “Eek!” and can’t share her true feelings about her diabetes, though.

(Coco was an existing Disney character.)

Like the previous title Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day, these titles will be available from pediatric endocrinologists. Ask your endo for copies and if they don’t have them, tell them to request them from their Lilly sales rep. They are available for patients in the US only.

We bloggers stressed the need to Lilly staff to find ways to distribute these books more easily to families so that they get into the hands of the T1 children, friends, and caregivers who can benefit from them. I personally think they need to be in school and public libraries. They took note, so I hope that you will be able to get your hands on them a little more easily.

Visit the Family.com website to view the growing collection on Disney’s Type 1 Bookshelf.

Disclosure: Lilly Diabetes paid for my travel expenses and lodging. They also provided me with copies of these titles so that our family can read them. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions are always my own.