Sometimes My Mommy Has Seizures

Two children meet on a playground and discover that they each have a parent with epilepsy. They talk about what it's like for them to live in a family with epilepsy, how they feel when they see a seizure, and what they think of their mom and their dad.

DO YOU OR A LOVE ONE HAVE EPILEPSY? DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE EPILEPSY? DOES YOUR CHILD KNOW WHAT TO DO IF SOME HAS A SEIZURE? ARE YOU LOOKING FOR AN EXCELLENT CHILDREN'S BOOK TO TEACH WHAT EPILEPSY IS TO YOUR CHILD? Millions of people have epilepsy or experience seizures. Are you one of them? Are you trying to figure out how to explain to your child or a child in your family about epilepsy and what to do if someone is experiencing a seizure? Author Stacey Chillemi and Illustrator provides spectacular proof that children really understand more than you think. Illuminating the cartoon illustrations of confusion and fear that epilepsy can cause, this new edition of My Mommy Has Epilepsy uses lively, subversive illustrations to show how to understand what epilepsy is and what to do if someone is experiencing a seizure. This picture book is sure to elicit a clear understanding and opportunity to eliminate children's fear of epilepsy from all who read it.

Edith, a young epileptic, struggles as she learns to cope with her illness while simultaneously trying to maneuver loneliness, fear, and unhappiness. When the death of her mother leaves her orphaned, young Edith is forced to live with her older sister and her dour husband in their stern Christian farming household. As she struggles to come to terms with the sudden changes in her life, including fear of what is to come and loneliness in a foreign place, the stress of adjusting begins to trigger frequent epileptic seizures. Feeling as if she is all alone in correcting her illness, Edith struggles to find a balance between her new life and happiness. “Beautifully written, this a tale to take its place beside those of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” – School Library Journal

The author has created a children's book aimed at helping them to understand the effects of an epileptic seizure, and how to help the ill parent or friend while unconscious. This short, colour-illustrated book is easy to understand, and may be useful to those parents who are afflicted by epilepsy.

This "intense reading experience"* is a Printz Honor Book. Shawn McDaniel's life is not what it may seem to anyone looking at him. He is glued to his wheelchair, unable to voluntarily move a muscle—he can't even move his eyes. For all Shawn's father knows, his son may be suffering. Shawn may want a release. And as long as he is unable to communicate his true feelings to his father, Shawn's life is in danger. To the world, Shawn's senses seem dead. Within these pages, however, we meet a side of him that no one else has seen—a spirit that is rich beyond imagining, breathing life. *Booklist starred review

Approximately 2.5 million people in the U.S. suffer from epilepsy; of these, more than one million are women of child-bearing age. With concerns about everything from medication-related birth defects to falls during seizures, many of these women are fearful of having children. The good news is that, with proper prenatal care, more than 90% will deliver healthy babies. Epilepsy and Pregnancy gives readers the basic facts they need to help them make medical decisions throughout preconception, pregnancy, labor, delivery, and the early days after childbirth. Topics include preconception, fertility, pregnancy risks, risks to the fetus, nutrition, keeping fit, what to expect during pregnancy, fetal development, and labor and delivery. In addition, the book includes guidelines for the use of antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy, recommendations and questions to ask their neurologist, recommended daily allowances by age group, glossary, and much more. Epilepsy and Pregnancy is an essential guide for any woman who suffers from epilepsy and desires to have a child.

Nearly three million people in the United States live with epilepsy every day and another 180,000 Americans develop epilepsy every year. Around the world, more than 60 million people have epilepsy. Epilepsy impacts everyone in different ways, as well as their families, friends and professional caregivers. This enlightening book presents the firsthand personal accounts of children with seizure disorders and their parents. In their own words, these children and parents vividly describe the experiences of handling the crisis of the initial seizure, adjusting to the diagnosis of epilepsy, coping with seizures, managing medications and side effects, and dealing with health care providers, teachers, schoolmates, siblings, and friends. Their stories reveal the terror, uncertainty, and frustration felt by children an dparents after an initial seizure or a diagnosis of epilepsy and document the ongoing trials, tribulations, and triumphs of coping with seizures, medication schedules and side effects, health care providers and hospitals, schoolmates, siblings, relatives and friends. These accounts provide realistic insights into the myriad issues encountered in living with childhood epilepsy. The book also includes a straightforward medical discussion of childhood seizures, written in layperson's terms; a glossary of medical terms; and a guide for schoolteachers and parents.