“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon...”
― Brandon Sanderson
SHELLY HIGGS
WRITER/DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG
Poppy's Monster
Set to be released in February 2024, Poppy's Monster is written specifically for preschool and school aged children 3-8yrs old. Those who experience separation anxiety at drop off to school or daycare will especially relate.
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Poppy's very brave, but often she gets scared and needs to hold someone's hand. That's when she knows her monster is around. She has all sorts of ways to help her not feel afraid, but none of them seem to work on her monster. Until one day Poppy realises...maybe monsters need their hands holding too. Drawing-style illustrations create a colourful, creative world.
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Written to help children validate their feelings and legitimise their autonomy in overcoming obstacles, Poppy's Monster is an empowering book for children to discover that they have the ability to take control over their own fear and to realise that everyone feels scared sometimes.
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The story behind the story:
My daughter Evie was half way through year one. For whatever reason, every single day all through Kindy and until 2 days before this book idea struck, she needed someone to physically hold her hand and take her into her classroom.
Her anxiety has been a physical, uncontrollable response that has caused many tears and frustration. Her tummy hurt, her heart beat fast, her chest got tight. Every single time. “Just get over it” was never going to work.
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So every day, we took her in, handed her to the willing hand of a teacher and encouraged, talked and role played trying to make it easier for her, trying to get one step closer to beating this monster anxiety. We even drew on Inside Out and talked about her having a monster in her head - trying to help her separate her fear, from herself.
Nothing worked.
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Then suddenly, one day, for the first time she turned to me and said “you know Mum, I think I’ve got this”. Then she hugged me goodbye, climbed over the balcony railing and walked into her classroom.
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It’s the bravest thing I think I’ve seen.
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The next morning was the clincher. I knew if she did it again that would be it and she’d have jumped this particular hurdle. We were nearing the railing on the edge of the school grounds. (Due to Covid, parents weren't allowed closer at that time).
She said “I don’t know if I can keep Fear in the cupboard today”. Her 9yr old sister turned to her, grabbed her on the shoulders, looked her in the eye and said: “Evie, you don’t have to put him in the cupboard- you just have to hold him, tell him it’s going to be okay and walk in with him..."​
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Evie climbed over the railing, called out goodbye and walked into the classroom all by herself.
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We've all heard the saying that courage is being scared and doing it anyway, but I realised in that moment what that actually meant, and how powerful self compassion, acceptance and imagination is. With Poppy's Monster I have tried to capture all those things.
