By Margaret Holmes
Illustrated by Cary Pillo
Y's friend in the kindergarten was injured in the forehead about more than 1 month ago. She recovered from the physical hurt but seems to have connected the horror of the injury to the ambulance that carried her to the hospital. She has been refusing to leave her mother fearing of the separation just like when she was taken to the hospital to get treatment.
The mother and I had a brief chat about this last week. I feel very sorry to see the mother drained of energy because of worries. I have been wanting to help. At first, I thought picture books featuring ambulances might help but was unsure if the child would simply be scared by the images of an ambulance. Then I started to think about the situation in relation to PTSD. After a search, there are books about how to help children suffering from psychological wounds.
A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret Holmes is a book recommended to children during the time of COVID pandemic in the USA. It is more like a book to help children to start getting psychological therapy. The story itself charts the ways in which the raccoon protagonist reacts to the horrible experience he has seen, unusual and unconscious behaviors and emotions unknown even to himself. With the guidance of a therapist, he gradually sorts out what has been going on in himself since the terrible happening.
T was also injured in the forehead before he turned one. He does not have any solid memory about the accident, while I, a mother, was more traumatized by the experience of witnessing one's own child bleeding and of being unable to find a place to treat the child because of my low Japanese fluency at the time. I have been wanting to turn that experience into a picture book, too. Maybe it is a time to begin the project of a picture book about wounds.
