Evelyne was diagnosed with cancer six years ago. Since that time, she and her son Antoine have gone through a roller coaster of emotions! This is where the title of the book comes from. The mother-son duo imagined a book that would have done them good.
In The roller coaster, we find information on cancer, medications and treatments for the disease… Antoine and his mother tried to make it as easy as possible to understand. For children, but also for older ones! “Even adults sometimes have difficulty understanding all the information about cancer. We wanted to use simple words, but learn specific things,” explains Evelyne.
What makes this book original is that it is also an activity book. It is colorful, playful and full of humor. There are coloring pages, crosswords on oncology professions, quiz…
There are also suggestions for topics to discuss with loved ones, such as: Is cancer contagious? How many times a week do you go to the hospital? or again: Will your body change? For Evelyne, these “chat breaks” are important: “It allows you to be less afraid to ask questions, to say how you feel. It’s important to name things, emotions and to trust yourself. Talking to each other is important and it feels good.”
Teamwork!
“I had a lot of fun participating in this project! I found it quite easy and I also learned a lot about how writing a book goes,” says Antoine. As he loves activity books, he had lots of good ideas!
He suggested games, he added jokes and it was he who invented the character of Crabou, a little crab that we find throughout the book. He also created certain drawings, alongside a professional illustrator, Jeanne Joly.
For almost a year and a half, Evelyne and Antoine worked together on this book. They wanted it to become a sort of “logbook” to support young people who are dealing with illness. Their wish? “The book helps readers better understand what cancer is, so that it’s a little less scary after reading the book,” explains Antoine.
