Ground Control & Jordan’s Mum

Last year, in collaboration with Fremantle Press, I had the opportunity to work on three books for Brightwater, as part of an initiative to help children with parents who have undergone brain trauma. One of the books was a picture book for younger children, and two, which I am discussing here, were chapter books. All the books were written by Jeneva Ohan (a clinical psychologist) and Robyn Bett (an associate professor) with, I am sure, help from Cate at Fremantle Press, drawing on her knowledge of children’s publishing (I don’t see a lot of the behind the scenes writing work, I just have to hope the text doesn’t change too much while I’m working on the illustrations!)

Ground Control

Ground Control told the story of Riley, whose mum suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash. It’s hard for her to bounce back after this, she’s tired and forgetful … but underneath it all she is still Mum, they just have to learn how to accomodate her new brain requirements.

Here are some of my favourite illustrations from Ground Control:

I really enjoyed designing the bedroom for Riley, and coming up with background items that fleshed out his character a bit more.

Jordan’s Mum

Jordan’s Mum was a harder book to work on - while Ground Control was a hopeful book, this was less so. Jordan’s parents are divorced, and he lives with his Mum, who starts to become forgetful and have mood swings. Eventually she is diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers, and while the family rally round to help her live independently for as long as possible, we know that the reality is that her disease will continue to progress.

Here are some of my favourite illustrations from Jordan’s Mum:

Based on my knowledge of Alzheimers I chose to warp the supermarket shelves to convey Mum’s confusion and declining spacial perception skills

For this illustration I used the photos on the wall to show the family as they used to be - Mum getting her hairdressing diploma, happy family moments, school photos. There wasn’t a lot of room but photographs play a large part further on in the story, so I thought this was an important detail.

Waiting rooms are often a nervous place. Here I wanted to show the contrast between Mum’s nervousness and worry, and Jordan’s resignation to spending far too much time in waiting rooms.

I was honoured to work on these books, it’s so important for children thrust into these situations to feel that they are not alone. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for them when the stability of their world comes crashing down.