Villareal, Koshy publish first children’s book
Arun is just starting the first grade, and it has become apparent that he is experiencing some challenges at school and home. After his new teacher notices his situation is ADHD, she’s able to help Arun’s family find strategies to calm his body and brain, while also introducing them to physicians and other resources to help along the way.
While this is a situation that many people will deal with in everyday life, it is actually the plot of Arun on the Run, a children’s book co-written by Sylvia Villareal, Med, MPH, adjunct professor, and Anson Koshy, MD, MBE, adjunct associate professor and artist-in-residence in the John P. McGovern, MD, Center for Humanities and Ethics.
As a board-certified developmental and behavioral pediatrician, Koshy said the idea from the book came from seeing patients and families who were struggling with mental health diagnoses for their children. The story serves as an avenue for parents to understand what is going on with their children and to introduce various resources that can help break the stigma around mental health diagnoses.
“Not everyone is raised with the construct of mental health, and this is particularly apparent in certain racial/ethnic groups like the South Asian community,” Koshy said. “I am South Asian, and although I work in the mental health arena, I find myself constantly explaining mental health diagnoses in very nuanced ways – in particular, that mental health diagnoses do not always mean that someone is struggling intellectually or that their future expectations need to change dramatically.”
Villareal and Koshy began planning the book in 2019 after a chance conversation led to the desire to collaborate on a children’s book. The duo worked together on the storyline, while Villareal took the lead in writing most of Arun’s story, and Koshy brought the accompanying illustrations to life.
“I still find it hard to believe we have our first children’s book published,” Koshy said. “It is a reminder to me that persistence and passion are incredibly relevant to do things you never thought were even possible. It is also a real testament to the value of having generous and talented colleagues who share a vision and a mission to make something like this a reality.”
Koshy and Villareal hope to continue their collaboration, with more stories potentially to come in the future, and they also hope to inspire other creatives at McGovern Medical School to follow suit with their own projects.
“We both know so many faculty and trainees who are incredible writers, so we hope this inspires others to take that idea, memoir, or creative project they have been ruminating on and make it happen,” Koshy said.