She tried to take her own life but Bex Lipp is now a publishing success story
Wildling Books in Taupo is so excited that our Aroha series of picture books has been voted the second most popular kids book in New Zealand in the 2021 Whitcoulls Kids' Top 50 Books List. Harry Potter is at number one, and the top 10 includes classics such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Hairy McLeary – as well as another of our books, How Do I Feel?, at number four.
Our first book Aroha’s Way was published after we won grants from Like Minds, Like Mine and the Mental Health Foundation to create a book about four emotions associated with anxiety, and how our heroine Aroha manages them. The tools we used were the things I learned in therapy nearly 20 years ago when I ended up in crisis at the Taylor Centre in Auckland after trying to commit suicide.
It’s since sold tens of thousands of copies, and we've been asked to translate it into German and Spanish. It's already translated into te reo Māori.
The book was based on my realisation that so much of what I had to learn to get better was simple stuff that I could have learned at school. It may have prevented me ended up in crisis. Although we talk about mental health more these days, there isn't much out there to help kids. I feel like our children need to learn about how they feel and know that they won’t always feel happy and that is normal. Aroha shows them this in our stories.
Originally, we were told that it was too complex for kids. But children suffering from cancer, sexual trauma, and selective mutism right down to kids who are scared to get up and give a speech at school, have all told us how much have loved the book. It gives me meaning that my difficult journey was for a reason.
We’ve also published Let It Go – Emotions, which covers sadness, anger, shame and fear, and Aroha Knows, focused on getting into nature. We donate 20c from every book sold to Trees that Count to plant native trees here in NZ. We will be donating another $1,200 soon taking us up to $3,600 and a total of 249 native trees. We love that our business (which is my whanau and my partner Craig Phillip's whanau) are able to do this.
Our latest book How Do I Feel?: A Dictionary of Emotions for Children is blowing up big time. When I ended up in crisis I realised there were all kinds of other emotions under the surface and over two years of almost full time therapy, I finally learned about how I truly felt; it's inspired me to create this unique dictionary. We have over 60 definitions, how they feel in your body and how each emotion can be helpful.
It’s also sold tens of thousands of copies, with heaps going to Australia. Children are learning about emotions like melancholy, apathy, suspicion, humility, frustration, vulnerability and powerlessness. The feedback has had me in tears. Parents are hearing about how their children are really feeling, and the children are feeling validated and really heard. It makes me so happy.
Aroha herself is becoming a bit of an icon or role model and we have seen lots of girls dressing up as her for book day at schools all over New Zealand, and also now in Australia and the UK.
I am so passionate about empowering kids with real skills and knowledge to hopefully prevent them from being like me and wanting to end my life. With the challenging times our children are facing with Covid and climate change not to mention dealing with social media, they need these tools more than ever.
Aroha's Way by Craig Phillips (Wildling Books, $19.99) and How Do I Feel? by Rebekah Lipp and Craig Phillips (Wildling Books, $39.99) are available in bookstores nationwide.
