Content - Children - dementia in my family - Library guides at Dementia Australia Library Service

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Books

My Book about Brains, Change and Dementia by Lynda Moore; George Haddon (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2018
'Sometimes, a person's brain gets sick with a disease called dementia.'
What does dementia do to the brain? And how can we help if someone we know, like a parent or a grandparent, has the disease? This book breaks down misconceptions about dementia and speaks directly to children about the realities of the disease, using age appropriate language in an engaging and informative way. It includes a diverse audience of characters, to emphasise that ANY child can be impacted by dementia in their loved ones. Unlike traditional storybooks, the ending provides a question for the adult and child reading it to ponder together. It reassures parents of the value of open and honest conversation about the challenges raised by dementia and offers advice and support in the opening 'Guide for grown ups'.
Celia and Nonna by Victoria Lane & Kayleen West
Publication Date: 2014
Celia loves sleepovers at her grandmother’s house. There are so many fun things to do. But everything changes when her grandmother moves to a new home. Clever Celia decides to help make the move easier...
Really and Truly: a book about dementia by Emilie Rivard & Anne-Claire Delisle
Publication Date: 2014
Charlie is very close to his grandfather, who loves to tell fanciful stories about pirates, witches, and gnomes that amuse Charlie to no end. But lately, Charlie's grandpa doesn't have any new stories to tell — in fact, on some days grandpa doesn't even recognise Charlie. A disease has stolen grandpa's memories, his appetite, and even his smile..
Still My Grandma by Veronique Van Den Abeele; Claude K. Dubois (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2007
Camille and Grandma have sleepovers, bake cupcakes, and go shopping together. But one day Grandma forgets Camille's name. Then she can't remember where to put her shoes. Camille learns that her grandma has Alzheimer's disease, which is what makes her do strange things.
Take the Time by Maud Roegiers
Publication Date: 2010
When everything is topsy turvy what do you notice when you take the time to slow down, think and listen?
Younger readers in the eCollection
View all the resources available in our eCollection for younger readers

My Book about Brains, Change and Dementia by Lynda Moore; George Haddon (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2018
'Sometimes, a person's brain gets sick with a disease called dementia.'
What does dementia do to the brain? And how can we help if someone we know, like a parent or a grandparent, has the disease? This book breaks down misconceptions about dementia and speaks directly to children about the realities of the disease, using age appropriate language in an engaging and informative way. It includes a diverse audience of characters, to emphasise that ANY child can be impacted by dementia in their loved ones. Unlike traditional storybooks, the ending provides a question for the adult and child reading it to ponder together. It reassures parents of the value of open and honest conversation about the challenges raised by dementia and offers advice and support in the opening 'Guide for grown ups'.
Dancing with memories by written by Sally Yule with Professor Ralph Martins & Maggie Beer
Publication Date: 2021
Supported by Professor Ralph Martins' Q&A and Maggie Beer's healthy lunchboxes, Dancing with Memories provides a platform to raise awareness, alleviate fears and facilitate conversation with children around brain health. It highlights the importance of a life-long healthy diet and lifestyle, and empowers children to engage with hope and intent in the growing social challenge of dementia.
Have you seen my gran? by Penny Walter
Publication Date: 2021
Themes covered in this story of curiosity and sleuthing:
• The notion of walking (not wandering) with dementia. An acknowledgement of the purposeful undertaking of this activity.
• The use of reminiscing and dementia.
• The value of dementia friendly communities to ensure an individual can live their best life.
Getting to Know Ruben Plotnick by Roz Rosenbluth; Maurie J. Manning (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2005
What do you get when you put together the coolest kid in class, an unpredictable live-in grandmother,
and a caring but anxious grandson? Disaster? No. You get to know Ruben Plotnick. David is worried
about how zany Ruben Plotnick will react when he meets Grandma Rosie, who often says and does
unexpected things. Will Ruben make fun of her to their classmates? Will he imitate her whispery voice?
What will he do if Grandma Rosie suddenly wants to dance?
Forget Me Not by Nancy Van Laan; Stephanie Graegin (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2014
Julia remembers when Grandma was still her old sweet self - when she still made fried chicken and biscuits the times Julia visited, and her eyes twinkled like candles on a cake. But ever so slowly, Grandma has been getting more forgetful. Soon, she can't even remember Julia's name, and her family sees that Grandma can no longer take care of herself. How Julia and her parents cope with these difficult changes makes for a gentle and reassuring story about a young child's unconditional love for a cherished grandparent.
Harry Helps Grandpa Remember by Karen Tyrrell; Aaron Pocock (Illustrator)
Publication Date: 2015
Author Karen Tyrrell shares memory and coping skills for memory loss in a heart warming humorous story. ‘Harry and Grandpa love playing hide -and-seek together. Over time Grandpa becomes grumpy and forgetful, refusing to play games with Harry anymore. On Grandparent’s Day, Grandpa becomes confused and lost. He couldn’t even remember Harry’s name. Then Harry discovers clever ways to boost Grandpa’s memory. How does Harry help Grandpa remember?’
Under the rose bush by Jane Fry
Publication Date: 2013
Under the rose bush is a short story which explores a touching relationship between a young girl and her grandmother who develops Alzheimers disease.
Sarah and her Granny are great friends. They spend a lot of time playing and learning together, gradually Sarah notices changes in her Granny. Sarah learns to adjust to the situation as her grandmother ages. Her story provides a sense of optimism despite the grief of eventually losing her beloved grandmother.
Take the Time by Maud Roegiers
Publication Date: 2010
When everything is topsy turvy what do you notice when you take the time to slow down, think and listen?
Beginnings and endings with lifetimes in between by Written by Bryan Mellonie and illustrated by Robert Ingpen.
Publication Date: 1989
"Have you ever wondered why a butterfly lives for only a few weeks? Or why a tree lives for hundreds of year? You may have been sad when someone in your family, or a favourite pet became sick and died. There is a beginning and an ending to everything that is alive. In between is a lifetime. Dying is a much a part of living as being born."
Younger readers in the eCollection
View all the resources available in our eCollection for younger readers

Talking to the moon by S.E. Durrant
Publication Date: 2020
*Staff recommendation for younger readers

Iris's grandmother, Mimi, has started to put jam on her scrambled eggs and tie yellow ribbons around her fingers to remind her of stuff. Her house, always full of things, is becoming harder and harder to navigate, and when Iris goes to stay, she feels as if a whole life is becoming muddled up. As her grandmother's memory fades, a mystery is uncovered. Who is Coral, and what happened to her?
Please Explain Alzheimers Disease to Me by Laurie Zelinger
Publication Date: 2021
Please Explain Alzheimer's Disease to Me introduces the condition to children in a colorful, sensitive and gentle story, followed by a parent/caregiver section that supplies comprehensive information that adults can use to understand and plan for the course of the disease affecting their loved one. Dr. Zelinger, a board-certified psychologist for children, presents the situation to children in a warm, developmentally appropriate way using appealing characters of diversity, child friendly language and familiar scenes they can relate to, as well as scripts that parents can use when speaking to their child.
Younger readers in the eCollection
View all the resources available in our eCollection for younger readers

Toffee by Sarah Crossan
Publication Date: 2019
Allison has run away from home and finds herself hiding out in the shed of what she thinks is an abandoned house. But the house isn't empty. An elderly woman named Marla, with dementia, lives there -- and she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past called Toffee. Allison is used to hiding who she really is, and trying to be what other people want her to be. And so, Toffee is who she becomes. After all, it means she has a place to stay. There are worse places she could be. But as their bond grows, and Allison discovers how much Marla needs a real friend, she begins to ask herself - where is home? What is a family? And most importantly, who am I, really?
The Dementia Diaries by Matthew Snyman; Social Innovation Lab Kent; Angela Rippon (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2016
Brie's Granddad has always been a serious man, never without a newspaper and knowing the answer to everything. But now he keeps losing track of the conversation, and honestly, Brie doesn't really know how to speak to him. At first, Fred was annoyed that Gramps had come to live with them, it meant he had to give up his room! But then he starts to enjoy watching old films with him and spending time together... although there's the small problem of Gramps calling him Simon. Follow the stories of Brie, Fred, and other young carers as they try to understand and cope with their grandparents' dementia at all stages of the illness. Adapted from true stories, and supplemented with fun activities and discussion ideas, this book for children aged approximately 7-14 cuts to the truth of the experience of dementia and tackles stigma with a warm and open perspective.
A Loved One with Dementia by Jean Rawitt
Publication Date: 2020
This book offers insight into what dementia is and how you can interact positively with and assist someone who has dementia. Featuring personal anecdotes from young people who have gone through this themselves, and with thoughtful advice from professionals.
Younger readers in the eCollection
View all the resources available in our eCollection for younger readers

Forgetting Foster by Dianne Touchell
Publication Date: 2016
Foster suddenly recognised the feeling that rolled over him and made him feel sick. It was this: Dad was going away somewhere all on his own. And Foster was already missing him.
Foster Sumner is seven years old. He likes toy soldiers, tadpole hunting, going to school and the beach. Best of all, he likes listening to his dad's stories.
But then Foster's dad starts forgetting things. No one is too worried at first. Foster and Dad giggle about it. But the forgetting gets worse. And suddenly no one is laughing anymore.
Before you forget by Julia Lawrinson
Publication Date: 2017
Year Twelve is not off to a good start for Amelia. Art is her world, but her art teacher hates everything she does ; her best friend has stopped talking to her ; her mother and father may as well be living in separate houses; and her father is slowly forgetting everything. Even Amelia.
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham
Publication Date: 2015
Three women - three secrets - one heart-stopping story. Katie, seventeen, in love with someone whose identity she can't reveal. Her mother Caroline, uptight, worn out and about to find the past catching up with her. Katie's grandmother, Mary, back with the family after years of mysterious absence and 'capable of anything', despite living with Alzheimer's disease. As Katie cares for an elderly woman who brings daily chaos to her life, she finds herself drawn to her.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Publication Date: 2009
Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. A Harvard professor, she has a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful, she dismisses it for as long as she can, but when she gets lost in her own neighbourhood she knows that something has gone terribly wrong. She finds herself in the rapidly downward spiral of Alzheimer's Disease. She is fifty years old. Suddenly she has no classes to teach, no new research to conduct, no invited lectures to give. Ever again. Unable to work, read and, increasingly, take care of herself, Alice struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away.
We are not ourselves by Matthew Thomas
Publication Date: 2014
We Are Not Ourselves follows the life of Eileen Tumulty, born to Irish parents and brought up in the New York City borough of Queens. From an early age, Eileen is determined to better herself and rise above her humble beginnings. She meets and marries Ed Leary, a young scientist, believing he is the key to her escape. What Eileen slowly and painstakingly begins to realise is that Ed does not share her desire to become upwardly mobile. While Eileen forges ahead in her career, Ed plods along, refusing to take up any offers of promotion. When the couple eventually have a child, Eileen transfers some of her ambitions to her son. She dreams of moving her family to a leafier suburb and does, in the end, get her way. Though, just as things seem to be looking up, Ed is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Websites for children

Dementia in my family
Brightwater - keeping us in mind
Supporting children, youth and young adults impacted by a family member with Younger Onset Dementia or Acquired Brain Injury. Includes downloadable resources.

Resources for adults

Journal articles

Miron, A. M., Thompson, A. E., McFadden, S. H., & Ebert, A. R. (2019). Young Adults’ Concerns and Coping Strategies Related to their Interactions with their Grandparents and Great-Grandparents with Dementia. Dementia, 18(3), 1025–1041.
Abstract

Caroline Gelma, Kate Rhames (2018) “I have to be both mother and father”: The impact of Young-onset dementia on the partner’s parenting and the children’s experience. Dementia, Epub July 12
Abstract

Gelman, Caroline Rosenthal & Rhames, Kate. (2018). In their own words: The experience and needs of children in younger-onset Alzheimer's disease and other dementias families. Dementia, 17, 337-358.
Abstract

Sikes, P., Hall, M. (2017). Every time I see him he’s the worst he’s ever been and the best he’ll ever be”: Grief and sadness in children and young people who have a parent with dementia. Mortality, 22(4), 324–338
Abstract

Sikes, P., Hall, M. (2016). “It was then that I thought ‘whaat? This is not my dad”: The implications of the ‘still the same person’ narrative for children and young people who have a parent with dementia. Dementia, 17(2), 180–198.
Abstract

Caldwell, E.F., Falcus, S. & Sako, K. (2021) Depicting Dementia: Representations of Cognitive Health and Illness in Ten Picturebooks for Children. Child Lit Educ 52, 106–131.

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