Adelaide author wins national award for her picture book Little Fox’s Hidden Disability

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Adelaide children’s author Lisa McArthur-Collins has won a national award for Little Fox’s Hidden Disability, a picture book about the sunflower lanyard worn by people living with disabilities others cannot see.

The book took out the Celebrating Diversity category at the SLVR Children’s Book Awards, held in Melbourne over the weekend. It was also a finalist in two more categories, Big Feelings and Beyond and For The Greater Good.

Little Fox’s Hidden Disability follows a young fox who discovers he has a disability nobody else can see, and learns that some disabilities are felt rather than seen.

At the centre of the story is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, worn on a lanyard by people with conditions such as autism, dyslexia or chronic pain.

The sunflower works as a quiet signal to everyone else that the person wearing it may need a bit more time, help or patience.

You will find the lanyards at airports, major events and shopping centres, yet plenty of people still have no idea what they mean. That gap is exactly what the book sets out to close.

“I wrote the book to help bring awareness for the sunflower lanyard initiative and educate the general public about what it means if they see someone wearing a sunflower lanyard,” Lisa said.

Lisa is autistic and dyslexic herself, and a mother to two autistic children, so the story comes straight out of her own life.

Little Fox’s Hidden Disability is illustrated by Maira Qaisar and published by Little Wings Publishing.

A share of the proceeds from every copy sold pays for Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyards, which Lisa then gives directly to people with hidden disabilities.