Why is Sam So SAD?: Seasonal Affective Disorder and Depression from a Child's Perspective

by Dan Granger

Overview

Sam has seasonal affective disorder or SAD. He will tell you all about it from a child’s view. Sam feels the winters are long and dark. The weather saps your energy.

What causes it? Lack of sunlight.

What season is the worst for people with SAD?

What happens when you are SAD? You become lonely.

Who do you talk to when you are SAD? No one.

Are there things to do when SAD takes over? You bet!

Come and learn what you can do during the SAD season.

After all, just because you suffer from SAD doesn’t mean you have to stay sad.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798886858891
Publisher:	Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Publication date:	10/24/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	34
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Dan grew up in the Midwest and has coped with SAD every winter since he was a child. However, that has not stopped him from achieving his goals. He received his bachelor of special education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He received his master's degree in early childhood education from Northern Arizona University. He is a certified reading specialist. He was a former teacher with fifteen years of experience teaching students from preschool through high school. In addition, he even tutored college freshmen. Teaching is in his blood and it even comes out in his writing.

He has lived in the Arizona sun, but today he lives in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Go Packers!

Editorial Reviews

2024-06-20
A child describes being affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder in this illustrated introduction to the subject for young readers.

Granger’s book introduces brown-haired, pale-skinned Sam, who needs the sun to form happy feelings. Where Sam lives, shorter days in the winter mean longer hours of darkness. Sam feels like his battery is drained; the youngster just doesn’t want to do anything; he has no energy during those months. “It is hard to get up without the sun waking me,” Sam explains. “It is like being there but not being there.” The author ably captures what seasonal depression feels like through these kid-friendly terms, keeping the sentences short to make comprehension smoother for emergent readers. (This stays true even when Sam introduces science terms like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin.) In addition to outlining the chemical reasons for Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sam explains why the Earth has seasons and notes that children who live in the other hemisphere get SAD during Sam’s own happiest months. The child also describes coping strategies, including gratitude journaling, talking about positive things, and finding purpose in helping others. While Granger breaks everything down very approachably, the density of text on most pages may stymie the elementary school readers to whom the book seems addressed. The flat, digital cartoon illustrations, which feature an ethnically diverse cast, are hit-and-miss; the depiction of the more depressed Sam in a grayish hue is quite effective, but other elements initially seem not to go with the text at all, such as an image of two previously unintroduced older children eating junk food (a closer read links the image to a discussion of SAD’s effects on eating habits). However, the words come through well, and children who experience SAD will find comfort knowing they are not alone.

A solid and accessible children’s introduction to SAD undermined by some uninspired illustrations.

Kirkus Reviews