Where's January?: How Molly finds her way

Free downloadable Parent Guide and Coloring Pages

Molly is a little girl with unidentified ADHD. As her family prepares for a big move, it suffers a number of difficult losses. Molly's bear is a concrete representation of those losses for her. At first, she doesn't notice that her bear is gone, but when she does, her big feelings show up. Molly finds 3 ways to manage. One of these ways is her art practice. Readers will find three art projects at the end so they can experiment with Molly's creative happy place.

"Where's January?" is semi-autobiographical. Diagnosed with ADHD in her 50s, Terri Clauss has been looking back on her life, recognizing her childhood symptoms and re-parenting herself. In real life, her emotions, concerns and distress were glossed over with instructions to "turn her frown upside-down" and "put on a happy face." She found her own way to cope through creativity, but is only now on an actual healing journey. Terri has found a tremendous amount of comfort, support and education in the TikTok community. This book brings the type of relatable content she has found there into the real world for people of all ages who do not indulge in the interwebs. Knowing she is not the only one with certain difficulties has been invaluable.

This story is multi-faceted. It is intended to offer children with and without ADHD support for their self-awareness and emotional intelligence. It offers strategies for managing big life events like travel, relocation, loss of a loved one, pet, or beloved possession. Teachers and therapists will appreciate insight into the way children with ADHD experience trauma in situations their typical peers manage with ease. Parents and foster/adoptive parents will be inspired to approach their children with greater empathy and may relate to and be comforted by the story themselves.

Because there are so many wounded people of all ages, Terri invites others to make coloring, painting, drawing, doodling, and painting their happy place whenever she can...like Molly.