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Ady and Me
Learn about neurodivergence in this thoughtful, fun-filled story about ADHD written by the iconic duo behind ADHD Love, Roxanne and Richard Pink.
I have a secret that lives in my brain.
I call him Ady, but that's not his name. . .
Doctors told Dad it's called ADHD
But that's way too boring for Ady and Me.
Join Sophie and her best friend Ady as they get ready for school, attend class, and learn all about exciting things from pharaohs to Venus and Mars. . . but Sophie's teacher doesn't see Ady or quite understand him. Ady wants to be friends with everyone, doodles on the page, spills paint, and gets distracted when learning all about math.
Ady may cause a mess sometimes, and Ady and Sophie are often running late—but having an Ady also brings creativity and joy to Sophie's life—and art class is their absolute favorite! Join Sophie and Ady as they find a place where they are happy and celebrated, as everyone should be, on their journey from misunderstanding to acceptance.
Through Ady and Me children will learn to understand, love and accept neurodivergence, in a simple metaphor that demonstrates all the ups and downs of life with ADHD, or with an Ady by your side!
ADHD Love's Rich and Rox bring their personal experience of neurodivergence to the story, sharing their important message that ADHD isn't something to be ashamed of—but something to be understood and celebrated. Ady is something to celebrate, and as Sophie discovers, lots of people have Ady's of their own!
With hundreds of thousands of followers across ADHD Love social channels, Rich and Rox bring their popular and important message directly to kids for the first time in Ady and Me. Paired with charmingillustrations by Sara Rhys, Ady and Me is a powerful and important picture book filled with color, fun, creativity, and most importantly a celebration of all people on the rainbow spectrum of neurodiversity.
I have a secret that lives in my brain.
I call him Ady, but that's not his name. . .
Doctors told Dad it's called ADHD
But that's way too boring for Ady and Me.
Join Sophie and her best friend Ady as they get ready for school, attend class, and learn all about exciting things from pharaohs to Venus and Mars. . . but Sophie's teacher doesn't see Ady or quite understand him. Ady wants to be friends with everyone, doodles on the page, spills paint, and gets distracted when learning all about math.
Ady may cause a mess sometimes, and Ady and Sophie are often running late—but having an Ady also brings creativity and joy to Sophie's life—and art class is their absolute favorite! Join Sophie and Ady as they find a place where they are happy and celebrated, as everyone should be, on their journey from misunderstanding to acceptance.
Through Ady and Me children will learn to understand, love and accept neurodivergence, in a simple metaphor that demonstrates all the ups and downs of life with ADHD, or with an Ady by your side!
ADHD Love's Rich and Rox bring their personal experience of neurodivergence to the story, sharing their important message that ADHD isn't something to be ashamed of—but something to be understood and celebrated. Ady is something to celebrate, and as Sophie discovers, lots of people have Ady's of their own!
With hundreds of thousands of followers across ADHD Love social channels, Rich and Rox bring their popular and important message directly to kids for the first time in Ady and Me. Paired with charmingillustrations by Sara Rhys, Ady and Me is a powerful and important picture book filled with color, fun, creativity, and most importantly a celebration of all people on the rainbow spectrum of neurodiversity.
32 pages, Hardcover
Published April 22, 2025
126 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 4, 2025
I wish this book existed when I was a kid, I loved it so much I read it twice!!
June 7, 2025
A cute book about a girl with ADHD that manifests as an imaginary friend she calls Ady that no one can see but her. The teacher in this book is really mean and yells but luckily the principal has an 'Ady' of his own and helps show the girl that the school is a welcoming place for everyone.
September 9, 2025
I'm rounding up to four, because overall I think it accomplishes a couple of really big things, even if I have some issues with some of the delivery.
Our protagonist envisions her ADHD as an adorable little monster that is her friend and constant companion...that just happens to sometimes cause some disruption in her life. Her new teacher doesn't "see" Ady so the little girl constantly ends up landing in hot water until eventually she gets sent to the principal's office--with surprising results.
First, what's good:
ADHD even now tends to often be discussed in conjunction with boys more often than not--with a lot of girls and young women getting misdiagnosed or missed altogether, so I'm glad for the representation here. Roxanne Pink the co-author, was one of those girls who was missed, and having read her own story and testimonials about her experiences elsewhere, I absolutely believe that she draws from very personal experience.
I love the representation of ADHD here as an adorable monster. Though Ady causes trouble, it's clearly inadvertent. At no point does the little girl in the story resent or get angry at her monster. I love the idea of kids seeing their neurodivergence as a part of themselves that may not be perfect but is still deserving of love, understanding and care. After reading this book with my own daughter (we both have ADHD) we each drew what we felt our own "Ady" would look like. This felt therapeutic and honestly--made me want to be more forgiving of myself. For that alone, I feel like this book deserves a lot of credit.
The rough part of this book was the teacher. There are consequences, but still--the teacher behaves so badly that it's really upsetting. No kid should be treated the way she treats the girl in this story. That was hard for me to read as an adult, and my daughter and I talked quite a bit in the moment about how the teacher's behavior was unjustified. It was so extreme that I feel like the book *has* to pull off the 180 turn with the principal to make up for it. Again--knowing what I know of Rox, I fully believe she was on the receiving end of similar type of judgments from adults in her life, so I 100% believe this was real for her, but I do think we've made at least some progress. I feel like maybe an ending not *quite* so neatly tied up as this was but allowing for some opportunity for learning (on the teacher's side) might have been a better way to go.
Huge credit to the Pinks though, for all the advocacy they've done on behalf of the ADHD community. Especially after reading this book, I feel like Rox could probably offer a lot of love and support to kids that are going through some of the same struggles she did. This was just a first try at it--but I feel like there could be more in her.
Our protagonist envisions her ADHD as an adorable little monster that is her friend and constant companion...that just happens to sometimes cause some disruption in her life. Her new teacher doesn't "see" Ady so the little girl constantly ends up landing in hot water until eventually she gets sent to the principal's office--with surprising results.
First, what's good:
ADHD even now tends to often be discussed in conjunction with boys more often than not--with a lot of girls and young women getting misdiagnosed or missed altogether, so I'm glad for the representation here. Roxanne Pink the co-author, was one of those girls who was missed, and having read her own story and testimonials about her experiences elsewhere, I absolutely believe that she draws from very personal experience.
I love the representation of ADHD here as an adorable monster. Though Ady causes trouble, it's clearly inadvertent. At no point does the little girl in the story resent or get angry at her monster. I love the idea of kids seeing their neurodivergence as a part of themselves that may not be perfect but is still deserving of love, understanding and care. After reading this book with my own daughter (we both have ADHD) we each drew what we felt our own "Ady" would look like. This felt therapeutic and honestly--made me want to be more forgiving of myself. For that alone, I feel like this book deserves a lot of credit.
The rough part of this book was the teacher. There are consequences, but still--the teacher behaves so badly that it's really upsetting. No kid should be treated the way she treats the girl in this story. That was hard for me to read as an adult, and my daughter and I talked quite a bit in the moment about how the teacher's behavior was unjustified. It was so extreme that I feel like the book *has* to pull off the 180 turn with the principal to make up for it. Again--knowing what I know of Rox, I fully believe she was on the receiving end of similar type of judgments from adults in her life, so I 100% believe this was real for her, but I do think we've made at least some progress. I feel like maybe an ending not *quite* so neatly tied up as this was but allowing for some opportunity for learning (on the teacher's side) might have been a better way to go.
Huge credit to the Pinks though, for all the advocacy they've done on behalf of the ADHD community. Especially after reading this book, I feel like Rox could probably offer a lot of love and support to kids that are going through some of the same struggles she did. This was just a first try at it--but I feel like there could be more in her.
April 24, 2025
A book about a girl with ADHD and it has manifested as a little ghost like creature that follows her around. She calls it Ady. Ady distracts her from doing things, and concentrating on school work. It gets her excited when she should be calm, but also helps her be creative and think differently. The teacher is pretty made at her, but the principal becomes the hero when he fires the teacher (!) and becomes the classes new teacher. He accepts Ady and the girl for who they are. I liked that the book shows good sides of ADHD and also that we need to leave space for all kinds of kids/behaviors in a classroom. A good one for kids who have ADHD. The only issue was the teacher getting fired, not realistic. But it's a picture book so I forgive this. Do wish the teacher maybe had a chance to change and grow, and learn to be more open. Would have been abit better lesson.
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October 8, 2025I think this could be an encouraging book for those with ADHD or who know someone with ADHD in helping them understand.
A little girls calls her ADHD Ady and it appears as a little creature that is always with her. She accepts and understands her Ady and never gets upset or frustrated and she knows that it's part of her.
But the teacher in this book is terrible. I get that it's part of the point-to show people that don't understand so you can fix that with people who do, but the teacher is so awful and says terrible things, I would hate to repeat them being read aloud to a child with ADHD.
I think with some conversation, this book could accomplish what it sets out to do, but I don't think I'd hand it to a kid to read by themselves. I wouldn't want the negativity to overpower the positive message.
A little girls calls her ADHD Ady and it appears as a little creature that is always with her. She accepts and understands her Ady and never gets upset or frustrated and she knows that it's part of her.
But the teacher in this book is terrible. I get that it's part of the point-to show people that don't understand so you can fix that with people who do, but the teacher is so awful and says terrible things, I would hate to repeat them being read aloud to a child with ADHD.
I think with some conversation, this book could accomplish what it sets out to do, but I don't think I'd hand it to a kid to read by themselves. I wouldn't want the negativity to overpower the positive message.
August 14, 2025
Bought to read and enjoy together with my neurodivergent eldest daughter. We made it around two thirds of the way through before I started crying and couldn’t keep reading. My eldest was understandably pretty confused why I was so upset, which led to a lovely chat about the importance of acceptance and celebration of people’s differences, and why empathy and understanding will always win over anger and intolerance.
December 22, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. Rich and Rox have done so much for the neurodivergent community and I am glad we now have books for children as well.
I enjoyed the story but struggled a bit with the teacher as the depiction is really problematic. As a teacher I really hope I'm not like this and more understanding as a neurodivergent person myself.
Overall, I enjoyed this and hope it helps more children feel represented.
I enjoyed the story but struggled a bit with the teacher as the depiction is really problematic. As a teacher I really hope I'm not like this and more understanding as a neurodivergent person myself.
Overall, I enjoyed this and hope it helps more children feel represented.
July 5, 2025
Super cute illustrations and definitely relatable. I was sad to see such a disheartening experience our main character is having at school but I know that does happen and I was both surprised and happy to see the outcome! 😊 One thing that tripped me up is that we don’t know the main character’s name. However, I suppose readers might be able to put themselves more in their shoes.
August 13, 2025
super sweet. i love seeing books i wish i had when i was younger. i don't have adhd but i have had a similar school experience growing up with asd. there's something bittersweet about seeing bookshelves in stores and libraries filled now with great representation and educational pieces for non nd kids to understand. once again, wishing we had books like this. the ending made me sniffle.
June 4, 2025
What a sweet idea, wonderful illustration, but the rhymes were a bit clunky. They could have been easily fixed (by changing singular to plural etc.) so that's why it's losing a star, but apart from that, this is such a fun take on ADHD!
October 29, 2025
We love this book!
My kids cant wait for the Ady stuffie and my sons wondering if there will be on with Tissy(autism) cause he has both Adhd and Autism.
My kids cant wait for the Ady stuffie and my sons wondering if there will be on with Tissy(autism) cause he has both Adhd and Autism.
May 28, 2025
Ady and Me by Richard and Rox Pink: 5-Stars ADHD love fills this picture book with a moving celebration of neurodivergence.
This children’s book is a BLAST for kids and adults alike!
The following book review of Ady and Me by Richard and Rox Pink and illustrated by Sara Rhys is *Spoiler-free.
It has been a while since The Forgotten Fiction reviewed a picture book, and this is a special one.
The art of writing for young people involves the magical ability to weave a fun, character-driven story – in a short span of pages – and to intertwine educational threads that have impact, and, if well done, a strong moral that comes across to the readers, young and old.
Educating while entertaining.
It is far easier said than done, trust me.
Also, great illustrations help kids books immensely to give weight, personality, and visuals.
Ady and Me opens in grand fashion:
I have a secret that lives in my brain.
I call him Ady, but that’s not his name. . .
Doctors told Dad it’s called ADHD
But that’s way too boring for Ady and Me.
The little girl Sophie’s imaginary friend is her ADHD personified into Ady.
Ady and Me, Richard and Rox Pink, ADHD, neurodivergence, neurodivergent, picture book, kids book, childrens book, ADHD Love
Whether or not the reader is neurodivergent is not important to enjoy and learn from this book...
Read The Rest of the Review HERE: https://theforgottenfiction.com/ady-a...
This children’s book is a BLAST for kids and adults alike!
The following book review of Ady and Me by Richard and Rox Pink and illustrated by Sara Rhys is *Spoiler-free.
It has been a while since The Forgotten Fiction reviewed a picture book, and this is a special one.
The art of writing for young people involves the magical ability to weave a fun, character-driven story – in a short span of pages – and to intertwine educational threads that have impact, and, if well done, a strong moral that comes across to the readers, young and old.
Educating while entertaining.
It is far easier said than done, trust me.
Also, great illustrations help kids books immensely to give weight, personality, and visuals.
Ady and Me opens in grand fashion:
I have a secret that lives in my brain.
I call him Ady, but that’s not his name. . .
Doctors told Dad it’s called ADHD
But that’s way too boring for Ady and Me.
The little girl Sophie’s imaginary friend is her ADHD personified into Ady.
Ady and Me, Richard and Rox Pink, ADHD, neurodivergence, neurodivergent, picture book, kids book, childrens book, ADHD Love
Whether or not the reader is neurodivergent is not important to enjoy and learn from this book...
Read The Rest of the Review HERE: https://theforgottenfiction.com/ady-a...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews