My Deep Breath (Author Interview)





My Deep Breath looks like the perfect book for teaching kids how to deal with emotions.  What age group is the book for?

This book is for children aged 2 to 12 and even beyond. It is targeted towards all children and parents that may benefit from reading it.

How long did it take you to write My Deep Breath?

My Deep Breath took me a couple of years to write. Once I decided what the main focus of my book would be, I started to brainstorm and compile ideas for the stories and illustrations. One thing I was certain of before I began to write this book was that I wanted the main focus to be on children's mental health. 

What inspired you when writing My Deep Breath?  

The main inspiration for this book came from my six year old son, who has been suffering from anxiety since he was a baby and as he grew, this became more apparent through his thoughts and his behaviours. He constantly needed reassurance and help with self-regulation. Throughout the years, I have worked with him to help him manage his anxieties and one of our main focuses to help with self-regulation has been to deep breath which has helped him immensely. I realized that many parents, like myself, may be struggling with a variety of mental health issues with their children therefore it is important to nourish a child’s mental health while they are still young and to help them deal with a variety of emotions positively. My Deep Breath is a book that does just that. It helps a child to understand that the variety of emotions they encounter daily are all normal and teaches them a form of self regulation.

How did you come up with the story and ideas in My Deep Breath?

Many, if not all of the ideas in my book came up through my personal experiences with my own child and what we have been doing to help him manage his emotions and to help him self-regulate. The ideas I have shown are very common challenges that parents are faced with each day and the variety of emotions are also those that children experience on a daily basis.  I feel that writing from personal experiences also helps me to connect with my readers which is very important to me.



Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when writing My Deep Breath?

Some of the challenges I had were to narrow down the emotions that I wanted to use in my book. There are so many more emotions that children experience but unfortunately I could not use them all.  Also being able to make my book accessible to multiple ages. I wanted both parents and children to benefit from the read and to capture the emotions through the illustrations so the illustrations had to be accurate to convey the message to the younger ones who cannot yet read

What do you like to do when not writing?
Even when I’m not writing, I’m always thinking about what book to write next: :D 
I enjoy spending time with my husband and my boys. We enjoy going on long hikes, bike rides and enjoying the outdoors. I also have a love for baking and travelling.

Where can readers find out more about your work?

Since this is my first book, I’m currently in the midst of creating a variety of media platforms for my readers. However, if anybody requires more information and would like to reach out to me, I can be contacted via email at deepaparekh27@gmail.com 




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