posted on 29 Jun 2024

The Bravest Word by Kate Foster

You haven’t even reached the teenage years yet but you’re already living a life that would make others envious – you’re a football legend in your school team, you’ve got a supportive mom and dad and it looks like the world is your oyster. Nothing can go wrong. Right? Wrong.

For Matt, all of his success in sport and at school is becoming last year’s story as he struggles to understand what’s happening to him. When before he couldn’t wait for big football games to start, he can’t face even the pre-season games now. He finds himself feigning illness, avoiding his friends, fibbing to mom and dad while inside he’s panicked – what’s happening to him? Why would he much rather roll into a ball in bed and sleep than do all those great things he was doing last year?

As he struggles to get to grips with what’s happening in his head, Matt and his dad come across an a wretched-looking dog that’s been abandoned and tied to a tree to await its fate. Matt immediately identifies with this poor creature and pledges to save it and look after it in the future. Could this animal – who they name Cliff – be the catalyst to understanding what’s going on in the young boy’s own life?

The dog spends some time at the vets getting the most obvious physical ailments sorted but it’s clear that the previous owners have inflicted terrible suffering on it and now it is full of anxiety – and, Matt discovers, the dog may well be depressed. The boy is shocked to discover animals like dogs can suffer from depression but he’s even more surprised to discover when he’s reading a booklet about depression in dogs that he may have the exact same symptoms.

Matt has to get to a point where he can admit to himself and to his parents that, just like Cliff the dog, he isn’t feeling well and that he may have depression. Being brave and saying the words is the first step to a bumpy road but one on which all the family will have lessons to learn about mental health. Vitally, Matt will discover that he’s not the only one feeling like he does and that his friends might just be more understanding than he expects.

The dreadful increase in reported mental health issues amongst pre-teenage children is one of the most worrying social indicators of the past decade. Just how much of an increase there has been in actual mental ill-health in that age group rather than just an increase in reporting is hard to quantify but the distinction hardly matters. What’s most important is that young people feel able to talk about their mental health with the same openness they talk about their physical health – and that they’re listened to. Books like this one can only help in that mission.

Available now from Walker Books, you will be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order you one if they don’t have it on their bookshelves.

 

Terry Potter

June 2024