As you might already know from your social media feeds, this last week has been Book Week where we celebrate reading and books and… kids dressing up as a book character! I’m super old school (my mum was a teacher) so the dressing up bit has always been distinctly related to books and book characters (and if the book came before the movie!) and honestly, I love it. Probably more than my own children! We had Grug and Captain Underpants costumes happening for my kiddos this week; one of which was a creative and fun project for Mum and one that was much simpler… both very cute! Anyway, I digress.
Books are one of the things I’ve always been passionate about as I love reading and learning through reading; this is distinctly the case in my professional life as well. So I thought, in honour of Book Week, I’d share my thoughts about a newly released series of 5 books: Zoe and Zak’s Pain Hacks.
This series of books is written by Joshua Pate and published via Noi group who are really well known in the chronic and persistent pain space for their seminal classic Explain Pain book and series of workshops. As a #neuronerd and working with individuals with persistent pain, I’ve attended a number of Noi group’s courses over the years and have the full suite of books they’ve published. However, whilst many of these books are really engaging with excellent visuals and graphics as well as helpful metaphors and examples, I’ve often found that when using them with clients they’ve still struggled with some of the concepts as well as the depth of reading involved. Lorimer Mosely and David Butler addressed many of these concerns with their Explain Pain Handbook: Protectometer published in 2015 however, even with this simpler version, this would still be challenging for young people and children to read. So when I recieved a referral for a neurodivergent young lady who also experienced persistent pain, I was wondering about how I could deliver some education with her that was simple and yet evidence based and engaging . In the meantime, I also needed a new mirror box because mine had vanished (likely donated to a client) so I hopped on to Noi’s website (https://www.noigroup.com/) to purchase one. And I happened to see this new series of children’s books in their store, added them to my cart and checked them out over the week.
Each of Zoe and Zak books in the series of 5 has a different focus from teaching pain science concepts about experiencing pain without damage, to understanding that a range of experiences can impact pain by dialing it up or down, to understanding the role of the brain in protecting us and through to developing an action plan to manage pain. The central character through the stories is Zoe Zoppins, who we find out in Book 2 experiences stomach pain quite often, and she learns about pain, her body and her brain over the series. The books are written in rhyme, although I felt like this probably wasn’t essential for engagement because the pictures and the story, including the pace and and progression, was interesting enough. There wasn’t any core repetition of any rhyming phrases either (which is often used to embed a concept or so young kids can join in) so it just didnt add a lot to it for me; and indeed I worry that it might pitch the books for a slightly younger audience than the full range of children that would really benefit from these books.
In any case, I thought that each of the books was really excellent with how it presented pain science and key concepts without overly dumbing things down or being condescending or conversely without being overly complex or complicated. The pictures were colourful, bright and engaging with little speech bubbles or exclamations and there was a balance of text on the pages but also a kind of comic book vibe with the characters speaking in the text bubbles as well.
As I was looking through these books, my 2 sons joined me on the couch and insisted I read my new books to them. And of course, the toughest critics of all were actually really engaged and involved! I got through 3 books before needing to cook dinner and so Mr 6.5 then took over reading duties and read Book 4 to his brother and both kids insisted I read Book 5 for bed time. When I asked them what they’d learnt from the books this is what they said
Mr 5: “They were about pain and our brain. And the brain makes pain even though the nail wasn’t actually in the guy’s foot!” (referencing Book 1)
Mr 6.5: “All the books were about pain! But just because you have pain it doesn’t mean damage… and you can get a bruise without having pain! I dont have stomach pain like Zoe but when I had a headache this afternoon I could manage it by keeping calm and moving slowly”
So from my perspective, that’s a win as that is some very early and yet effective learning of key pain concepts!
The target audience is 6 – 10 year olds but I reckon 7- 9 year olds would really get this the most and really enjoy the books. I think girls and boys would enjoy them equally as the characters are well balanced. I think my client, who is older than this, might think they were slightly too childish only in terms of the rhyming and perhaps some of the visuals; but Book 4 and 5 were a really winner for me with the action plan concept and included worksheets in the back which I’m actually really keen to go through with her. I think that it wouldn’t take much to be suitable for a slightly older age bracket so I will see how we go. Either way, it’s great that these concepts are getting out there in the world and becoming more accessible to children and young people to understand, prevent and manage persistent pain. My kids asked if there were any more of these books- and I really hope there will be!
Link to purchase here https://www.noigroup.com/product/zoe-and-zaks-pain-hacks/
There’s also some excellent resources including worksheets and activities here https://www.zoeandzakspainhacks.com/
I hope you had a great Book Week!
