A Joyful Conversation: A Guest Post by Lake Bell
We’re thrilled to get to know actress, screenwriter and director Lake Bell in a brand-new way — author. Lake has penned an exclusive essay for us on how her daughter inspired her to write her debut picture book, All About Brains, and how she hopes readers learn to celebrate all their differences.
Hardcover
$9.99
$19.99
All About Brains: A Book About People
All About Brains: A Book About People
By
Lake Bell
Illustrator
Rachel Katstaller
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$9.99
$19.99
In her debut picture book, acclaimed actress, screenwriter, and director Lake Bell weaves a joyfully whimsical story that celebrates the beauty of neurodiversity.
In her debut picture book, acclaimed actress, screenwriter, and director Lake Bell weaves a joyfully whimsical story that celebrates the beauty of neurodiversity.
Elders love to impart the adage: Your children are your greatest teacher. Of course, there’s no way to truly understand what that means until you have children yourself. Now, as a proud mother of two terrific kids, I finally get it.
My firstborn, Nova, came into the world at home. Her celestial name means “a burst of bright stars, appearing suddenly and releasing a powerful astrological energy.” I never anticipated that Nova would live up to her name so poetically, bringing newness to my understanding of neurodiversity and the magic of the brain.
Her first grand mal seizure occurred when she was one year old, accompanied by a fever, and was diagnosed as a febrile condition. “As long as a fever is connected to the seizure, she’ll likely grow out of it,” our neurologist assured us. But alas, at five years old, she began convulsing with no fever in sight. Nova was ultimately diagnosed with generalized epilepsy caused by a genetic mutation in her SCN1A variant.
Our family—including her ever-patient little brother, Ozzi—discovered the most about Nova’s condition through Nova herself. After the initial growing pains of finding the correct medication, Nova surprised us. She began to advocate for herself, educate those around her, and describe the beauty of her neurological electrical charges as “sparkling wires crossing.” She inspired this book.
In solidarity, I was grateful for the breadth of knowledge imparted by neurodiversity expert Dr. Maureen Dunne, whose insight helped ensure the sensitivity and accuracy this subject deserves.
All About Brains is an honest, peer-to-peer, joyful conversation about pediatric neurodiversity, told through the lens of a neurodiverse comrade. I felt compelled to write All About Brains exclusively from the maternal vantage point of my daughter Nova’s journey with her own neurodiversity. Observing her evolve in her relationship to her epilepsy diagnosis—and how it shaped her life and the world around her—became the gateway into the book’s narrative.
I found myself drawn to exploring how children with neurological differences navigate peer-to-peer conversations. Being by Nova’s side during these meaningful discussions helped shape the heart of this book. Children have permission to share and articulate big concepts in ways that are humble, accessible, honest, and relatable to their friends. The book seeks to harness that candor and provide a safe space to embrace all of our differences—particularly those that stem from our body’s most elusive, mysterious, and magical organ: the brain.
All brains carry neurological uniqueness, but only some of us are lucky enough to have those qualities shine through.
