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Our Special Needs Library
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Our first effort was in 1985. Work was begun on a book for children entitled, Ignatius Finds Help, A Story About Psychotherapy for Children. The story was illustrated by a colleague in Special Education at Larue Carter Hospital, Ms. Sandra Ferraro. Drafts of the story were reviewed by three child psychiatrists: Drs. Nancy Roeske, James Simmons and Takuya Sato and by the Special Education teachers at Carter. The final draft was complete with illustrations, and about 300 books were printed. The printing was made possible with a grant from The Arthur B. Richter Fund for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine. Subsequently, Mark Tracten, President of Brunner/Mazel Publishing Inc. in New York, purchased the rights to this story and arrangements were made to publish additional books about child psychiatry. The publication of Ignatius Finds Help in 1988 launched a new division of Brunner/Mazel called Magination Press which is devoted exclusively to special needs/mental health literature for children and their parents. Magination Press is now under the direction of the American Psychological Association. Since 1988, Ignatius Finds Help has found its place in the special needs collections in school libraries assembled by clinicians that serve children and their families. It has had a successful 10-year run in print in soft and hardcover. The success of Ignatius Finds Help is, however, modest in comparison to our second book, Otto Learns About His Medicine, A Story About Medication for Hyperactive Children (Galvin & Ferraro, 1988). A 1995 version has sold over 20,000 copies. Otto, like its predecessor, came in to print only after careful review by other child psychiatrists, including Dr. Barbara Stilwell, and the teachers at Larue Carter. Otto was followed by a book entitled Robby Really Transforms, A Story about Grown-ups Helping Children (Galvin &Ferraro, 1988). Robby had very limited appeal. It sold few copies, we surmise, to clinicians serving the seriously and persistently mentally ill children in need of out of home placement, case management and play therapy. Drawing an analogy to drugs that may benefit people with uncommon conditions but which can not be successfully marketed because of limited demand, we think of Robby as our first orphan book. Another book which resulted from a collaborative effort was entitled Sometimes Y, A Story for Families with Gender Issues (Galvin, Collins, Ferraro, with introduction by Susanne Blix, M.D.,1993). Despite good reviews from specialists in childhood gender identity disorder, it suffered a similar fate. Publishers cited the problem of marketability. Since so few children have diagnoseable gender identity disorder, Sometimes Y is a loss leader. Consequently, Sometimes Y,our second orphan book, has only a limited printing which is subsidized with royalties from our previously published titles. |
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