Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield reads the new children’s book by the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. [CIMVHR]
Adapted from Australian versions created by Marg Rogers, both the originals and their Canadian counterparts address themes associated with military culture, from deployment to relocation to operational stress injuries and more, providing young readers with an age-appropriate understanding of service and its meaning.
The four current storybooks, with four more on the way, pull inspiration from uniquely Canadian aspects of the language, its cultural characters, animals and place settings, ensuing a feeling of inclusively for all readers. Plus, each tale is grounded in the most recent scientific evidence, presenting parents with additional resources for tackling challenging topics with their kids.
Accompanying the printed books are audiobook equivalents, including one narrated by Canadian Armed Forces veteran and retired astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The series received $100,000 in funding from The Royal Canadian Legion. Together with the backing of the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services and other partnerships, CIMVHR has now made the collection freely available online. The printed versions, meanwhile, are sold at the price of production.
Legion Magazine sat down with Amy Doyle, creator of the Canadian adaptions, and Nicholas Held, CIMVHR’s interim scientific director, to discuss the books.
On the origins of the project
Doyle: I’ve been with CIMVHR since 2021, so at the heart of the pandemic. My role is essentially partnerships and project management. I remember seeing Marg Rogers’ book project at the virtual forum held that year, and I recall being so impressed with her passion and expertise. It wasn’t long after that I spoke with the CIMVHR leadership, explaining that it would be really impactful for us to adapt it.
We then pulled together military parents from across Canada who could inform the books, including representation from the army, navy and air force. We also wanted French-, English- and Indigenous-language adaptions to make sure we covered the entire military spectrum while making them as diverse and as inclusive as possible.
The adaption process itself fell to me, which was fun.
On Canadianizing the stories
Held: While representing Canada and Canadian military families, several of the themes explored in the adaptions are considered universal military experiences, from deployment to family relocation to being part of a family with that strong military culture in the first place. These themes can be found in both adaptions. It’s then a case of addressing the differences [between Australia and Canada].
Doyle: Getting the Australian spiders out of the book was also necessary because they were everywhere. We could then bring in [Canadian] winter, flora and fauna. Fundamentally, it’s important for Canadian military children to see themselves and their families in the books, represented by Canadian ships like HMCS Fredericton and, of course, Canadian uniforms as opposed to, say, U.S. or Australian uniforms.
On the series being evidence-based
Held: Evidence-based is a term that gets used everywhere. Everything is evidence-based now, but determining what it means and what level is really the challenge.
Doyle: From an evidence-based perspective, these books are for parents as well. If we’re talking 50 pages, 30 of those are for kids, while the remaining pages outline why, for instance, we’ve included a character experiencing emotional upheaval, or why we’ve introduced creative arts therapy, or why we’ve discussed the impact of nature, or why it’s important to maintain a routine when a parent is on deployment.
This accumulated research is at the back of the book in an easy-to-read format for parents. It’s therefore an opportunity to start conversations that are otherwise hard to start with kids, giving parents the resources they need to have those discussions.
Held: Even more broadly, it’s an opportunity to highlight that research can have an impact with an ability to touch individual lives—not just at conferences, not just in papers, not just in academic communities, but actually within military and veteran households, going beyond to benefit caregivers, teachers, neighbours, and anyone who is connected to or supporting our military families. That’s what we’re about.
This abridged interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Advertisement
