Decoding the clouds of childhood depression

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This article was published 11/05/2023 (905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Abigail is a little girl who has a dark cloud. Sometimes it’s big. Sometimes it’s not a cloud at all, but a ball of worries, or a swirl of fog, or a long shadow. Sometimes, it takes away her appetite.

We meet Abigail in Dark Cloud, the latest picture book from Winnipeg children’s author Anna Lazowski. Published via Kids Can Press and illustrated by U.K.-based artist Penny Neville-Lee, Dark Cloud is a sensitive examination of depression in children.

The book was inspired by something that happened to Lazowski’s daughter a few years ago, when she was prescribed an allergy medication. The new prescription dovetailed with some other big life changes — including moving to a new school and starting French immersion — so Lazowski initially chalked up her daughter’s behavioural changes to the adjustment period. But then, things began to spiral. “We watched our normally very happy, outgoing kid kind of just disappear,” Lazowski says.

One of the side effects of the allergy medication was depression. Lazowski took her daughter off the medication and got her the support she needed — which included looking at books. Lazowski began thinking about what role picture books can play in facilitating age-appropriate discussions about a tough subject.

“It’s hard to talk about emotions and concepts with kids because they’re abstract,” Lazowski says. “And it’s really hard to get them to express that, because if adults don’t have words for this, we can’t really expect kids to.”

And so, when Lazowski wrote Dark Cloud in January 2020, she purposely went lyrical and evocative with the text. It’s easier for a young reader to connect to the visual of, say, a dark cloud than it is to relate to the word “depression.”

Finding an illustrator who could bring these powerful images to life was a bit of serendipity. After she’d finished the manuscript, Lazowski happened across a series of black-and-white drawings Neville-Lee had posted on Twitter.

In one of them, a little girl is hugging a cloud. In another, she’s surrounded by flowers in a riot of colours.

“And I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s Abigail,’” Lazowski says.

Neville-Lee’s canny use of colour underscores the nature of depression; as the book progresses, the moody hues of Abigail’s world become more vibrant — from a single pop of sunshine yellow to an entire paintbox rainbow.

Dark Cloud fits within a broader movement to improve and increase diversity and representation in picture books, so more kids can see themselves in them. Representation need not be limited to physical appearance, Lazowski points out. It’s valuable for kids to see their feelings reflected on the page as well.

“I’m really hoping it’s the kind of thing that psychologists and teachers and librarians and parents can use when they run into something with a kid and they need a book,” Lazowski says of Dark Cloud. Abigail learns, for example, that she’s not alone in her feelings, and that parents and caregivers can have dark clouds, too.

“I think it’s really important to have these kinds of things available to kids, so that they can see what they’re going through or what they’re thinking about.”

Lazowski also drew upon the expertise of clinical psychologist and author Kirsty Rorke to write a hopeful, and realistic, book about childhood depression.

“The cloud is still with her, but she learns how to make it smaller or how to still have fun despite it,” Lazowski says. “I think it’s important, too, for kids to realize this isn’t going to necessarily just go away, because that’s not reasonable to give that expectation. It’s about managing it, and learning to carry on and find moments of happiness.”

Indeed, to extend the dark cloud metaphor further, not every day is going to be sunny. Sometimes it will rain. Sometimes it will rain for weeks. Sometimes it will even feel like it will never stop raining. And then, it does.

“I think we expect kids to be happy all the time, for some reason,” Lazowski says. “I remember when my kids were little, and they’d be grumpy, and I’d be like, ‘Why are you grumpy? Your life is great.’ But I think it’s important to realize that we shouldn’t expect them to be happy all the time. It doesn’t make sense — adults aren’t happy all the time, nobody is. So you’re going to need something to get you through those ups and downs.”

The Winnipeg book launch of Dark Cloud is tonight (May 11) at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Grant Park. It will also be available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com