SOLVED. Middle Grade, Non-Fiction - Children's guide to going into hospital and coping there. [s]

[Angeline]

I read this book somewhere between 1995 and 2002. It was published in paperback (with black and white illustrations; IIRC the cover was white with the title surrounded by coloured cartoon illustrations of doctors and patients) in the UK, and aimed at roughly the eight-to-twelve age group, judging by the language used.

I am hesitant about saying this because I'm not sure, but my half-memories of author names often prove accurate: I think her first name may have been "Rosie", and that she may have been established as an author in some other field (fiction for adults of some kind), but please don't let that stop you making suggestions if you know of a book where that is not the case!

The author's child had a chronic illness (possibly cystic fibrosis), and its advice was derived from their many inpatient experiences together. It was designed to help children deal with hospital admissions, e.g. how they might feel, how they might cope with having tests and operations, how to talk to the staff, and how to cope with embarrassment, boredom, social isolation etc.

Some specific things I remember:

- It was illustrated with cheerful line drawings throughout, and had a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone, though it didn't stray from tackling the fact that children in hospital, particularly with serious or chronic illnesses, can have some pretty deep fears about all the uncertainty involved.

I don't recall it going into really dark "what if I die?" type territory, but the book seemed to at least implicitly acknowledge that some children have lengthy, difficult and recurring hospital experiences, i.e. going into hospital isn't all "went in for a couple of days to get my tonsils out."

- There was a Q&A with answers to common questions, and I remember particularly a section about dealing with embarrassment around personal care and bodily functions, addressing children's fears about having to use a bedpan, needing assistance wiping, other people on the ward knowing/smelling, etc. (The reassurance was that hospitals tend to have air freshener handy, and that most wards - this being a British book - tend to be quite big and roomy and smells disperse quickly, etc. etc.)

I remember this particularly because the author advised embarrassed children to consider how many bottoms the average nurse must see in their average day, and then, using some simple maths, how many a week/month/year/career etc. - the point being that your bottom is merely a drop in an entire ocean of bottoms! There was a cartoon of a nurse in a boat surrounded by said bottoms, and I tend to think this would be memorable for most readers.

- There was a fair bit about medication, and how to talk to your doctors about it, and how drugs can have big long names that are hard to pronounce. The author's advice was to create mnemonics to remember the names of your meds, making liberal use of puns and turning them into characters. For instance, paracetamol became "the chatty Parrot-Says-Em-All", and ventolin became "Vent O'Linn, the daring Irish explorer," or words to that effect. There were cartoons of these characters, and perhaps an encouragement for kids to draw their own.

I'm not sure what the overall balance of text to illustrations was, but it would have been at least 50/50 and I would say closer to 75/25.

[Angeline]

Just bumping this as it's been six weeks and perhaps a different set of eyes will spot it this time!

[Rainbowheart]

The Hospital Highway Code

[Angeline]

Rainbowheart wrote: "The Hospital Highway Code"

You absolute hero - that's the one!!! Thank you!

[Rainbowheart]

No prob, glad to help out!