My Friend Has ADHD

My Friend has ADHD
Written by Amanda Doering Tourville and Illustrated by Kristin Sorra
Publisher: Picture Window Books
January, 2010
Grade: K-2
Themes: special needs and ADHD

Summary: This is a nice story about two friends. One of the boys, Robby has ADHD and Marcus who doesn't have ADHD is his friend. Marcus in the narrator, he talks about what he and Robby do together and some of the symptoms of ADHD. "Robby and I love talking about sports, but sometimes he talks when he shouldn't. He isn't doing it on purpose, but I worry we'll get in trouble"(pg.6).

Reflection: I like this book a lot! I think the did you know facts on each page are informative. I like that there are two cultures in the book. Marcus is Hispanic and Robby is white. In the back of the book there is an explanation of ADHD and a glossary of some words pertaining to ADHD that elementary students wouldn't know. There are also some book titles listed about ADHD. I like how this book shows that children can still have friends with ADHD and participate in most of the activities children without ADHD participate in.  This is a great book to use when talking to children about ADHD especially because so many children are diagnosed with it today.

Pre-Reading: Talk to the children about what ADHD is and the symptoms. Tell the children that you can still be friends with someone who has ADHD and people with ADHD can still participate in the same activities children without ADHD participate in. Go over vocabulary in the back of the book.

Post-Reading: I will give the students a worksheet that says, Today we read My Friend has ADHD one thing I learned is (blank) and the students will have to fill in one thing they learned from reading the book and then draw a picture.


About the author:

Amanda Doering Tourville lives in Minnesota with her husband and bulldog. Amanda loves writing about a variety of topics. She is so happy she gets to help children learn and love to read! She feels being an author is a rewarding job. She likes to read, paint and travel.

I Can't Stop! A Story about Tourette Syndrome

I Can't Stop! A Story about Tourette's Syndrome
Written by Holly L. Niner and Illustrated by Meryl Treatner
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2005
Grade:1-4
Theme: Tourette's Syndrome and acceptance

Summary: This book is about a young boy struggling with Tourette's Syndrome. Tourette's Syndrome causes people to do things with your body that you can't help no matter how hard you try not to. Some of these are blinking, sniffling, moving your head, barking and swearing. There is not much you can do for this. Medicine may help, but it has a lot of side effects.

Reflection: This is a great book to read to your class to educate them on Tourette's Syndrome. I read a novel called Front of the Class by Brad Cohen. Brad Cohen wrote about his life dealing with Tourette's. Much of what he wrote sounds very familiar to the information in this book. This book is easy to understand, but some of the pages do have a lot of text on them. I would say this book is appropriate for first grade and older. At the beginning of the book a doctor writes about Tourette's Syndrome. I like that the book stresses that people can be successful with Tourette's. The illustrations are very life like and they really capture the character's facial expressions and body language depending on what situation(s) they are in.

Pre-Reading: Complete a KWL Chart with the class. Asking them what they know about Tourette's, what they wonder and what they learned after reading the book.

Post-Reading: I got this activity from another teacher. She did this with us after we finished The Front of the Class by Brad Cohen. Imagine you are a student with Tourette's. You need to write the Pledge of Allegiance. When ever you hear a knock on the table you need to run your thumb using the hand you are writing with down your cheek, but when a person has Tourette's Syndrome, they could also be Obsessive Compulsive, so you need to cross out every third word and re-write it. You have a minute to write the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we will discuss how difficult of a task this was and how this is what people feel like everyday living with Tourette's. Try this! It is so much harder than it sounds.

About the Author:

Holly L. Niner grew up in Newburgh, NY. She spent most of her time reading as a child. She studied to be a Speech Therapist. She loved reading books to her children. She realized she wanted to write stories children would love. She took a writing course and has published two books. She lives in Indiana with her husband, two children and two cats.