Chasing monsters: New book aims to help kids with anxiety

Published: March 15, 2021, 10:28 p.m.

Author Mark Stevenson watched his daughter wrestle with anxiety from the tender age of three. He says what his daughter went through, and his own experience of feeling helpless as a parent, was the motivation behind writing Jessie and the Monster - A Battle with Anxiety, A Story of Courage and Hope. Pitched at young people, aged 8 to 15, it centres on a young girl who's previously safe and secure life is turned upside down by the invasion of a creature called Wisper. Mark says the book has been 20 years in the making, and was born out of his daughter Frankie's own struggles.