Description

The story of Fighting Frankie explains to children why they may want to fight in times of anxiety.  This may be fighting physically, in words or through defiance and control.  The book focuses on the biological reasons behind this fighting and uses the Brain Switches concept (Belong 2013) to help readers understand that they are not to blame.  This aims to reduce any shame and offers hope that their switches can change.

Young people are encouraged to own the book by colouring, doodling and writing in it.  The story is again written in a monologue style to help readers understand that their internal dialogue is not unique.  We find that many young people feel very alone in their ‘fight tendencies’ and the feedback we had from our trial group was that they felt the book was written for the ‘voice in my head’.  We feel that if young people can identify with the character then they can see more hope in the overall messages.

Sometimes I Fight also opens up conversation about involving a key adult to support them with their ‘brain switches’.  In fact the key message is that it’s okay to feel this way, understandable on a biological level to fight but it’s probably too hard to deal with this alone.  We hope that the book might also educate adults to be more helpful too – which was the feedback from our second book.

Suitable For:

All Children, especially those prone to fighting when they get anxious.  It’s ideal for foster and adoptive parents to use with their children as well as teachers, social workers, counsellors and therapists to use in their work.  It might even be useful for you too – after all, the ‘fight switch’ is in us all!

Therapeutic Topics:

Fight mechanisms, neuroscience, trauma, triggers, shame and self-esteem.