Sam Is Still Sam

A picture book about epilepsy, seizure first aid and friendship, for children aged 5 to 9. Reviewed and approved by a UK consultant paediatric neurologist.Saturday is football day. Then, in the middle of the match, Sam stops running.Ben Parker grabs his ball and hurries down the street to call for his best friend, past the postbox on the corner. Sam opens the door with a glass of water in his hand. Two minutes. He is just taking his medicine.At the park, the whole team is there. Maya. Ben's little sister Ava in her pink wellies. Oliver, the new boy, whose boots are so new they still shine. Sam scores the first goal of the game.And then the football rolls gently away, and Sam slides down onto the grass. Ben reaches him first. He does not know what to do next.A warm, honest picture book about watching a friend have a seizure, and still being his friend afterwards.Nobody panics. Nobody puts anything in Sam's mouth. Nobody holds him down. Mrs Patel asks everyone to give Sam some space, slips her jacket under his head, and waits with him until it passes. When Oliver whispers that he does not really know what epilepsy is, she tells him the truth, simply: sometimes a brain has a little storm, too many signals at once. You cannot catch it. It is nobody's fault. And it passes, just like a storm does.Afterwards Sam sits on the bench with a drink, and Ben sits beside him without asking lots of questions. He simply waits until Sam is ready. It turns out that is one of the kindest things a friend can do.Then Sam gets up. And the very first person to cheer his next goal is Oliver.Written for British children, checked by British doctorsSet on an ordinary English street with an ordinary Saturday football club, Sam Is Still Sam was reviewed and approved by a consultant paediatric neurologist in the United Kingdom, and its seizure first aid follows UK guidance. Around one in 200 children in the UK has epilepsy, which means most primary schools have a child like Sam.What is insideA story told from a friend's point of view, so children see what to do and how to beIf your friend has a seizure - the four steps, in words a child can hold on to: Stay. Safe. Side. Send for help.An about epilepsy page for grown-ups, plus where to find support in the UKLet's talk together - discussion questions for home, classroom or clubSoft watercolour illustrations of a very ordinary, very English SaturdayPerfect forFamilies where a child has epilepsy. Brothers, sisters and best friends. Teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs, school nurses, coaches and Beavers or Rainbows leaders. Any grown-up who wants a child to meet epilepsy kindly, before they meet it by surprise.Children who have epilepsy deserve to see themselves in a story where they are the striker, not the problem. Children who do not have epilepsy deserve to know what to do, so that the day it happens in front of them, they are the one who stays.Epilepsy was part of Sam's life. It was not who Sam was.About the authorPhyllis Kimani is a pharmacist registered in the United Kingdom and in Kenya, and a family caregiver. She founded NeuroReach to help children understand the brain early, while attitudes are still forming, and to make sure that a child who has a seizure at school is met with calm rather than fear.A NeuroReach book. NeuroReach is a non-profit community interest company, and proceeds support brain-health research and education. Also available in the NeuroReach Friends Series: The Day the Purple Kite Flew and My Friend Amani.