A Mind Like Mine by Rachael Davis
Published by Wide Eyed Editions
Illustrator: Islenia Mil
Age Group: Middle Grade
Format: Non-Fiction
Genres and Categories: Black Authors, British Authors, Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, Mental Health Representation, OwnVoices Representation, Chronic Illness, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, Mobility Aids, Neurodivergent, Physical Disabilities, Miscellaneous History, Diversity
My Rating:
Published on: 5th July 2022
Pages: 64
Disability Representation: Anorexia, Anxiety, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Bipolar Disorder, Body Dysmorphia, Bulimia, Chronic Health Condition, Delusions, Depression, Eating Disorder, Hallucinations, Mental Health, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder (OSFED), Panic Attacks, Panic Disorder, Phobia, PTSD, Schizophrenia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Suicide
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 Mind Like Mine is a stigma-busting collection of biographies of some of the great people from history who have lived with mental health conditions.

Did you know Charles Darwin experienced anxiety and Florence Nightingale lived with PTSD? From Michelangelo to Deepika Padukone, Ada Lovelace to Freddie Flintoff, a great many successful people with brilliant minds and talents have lived or are living with mental health disorders.
 
The biographies in this book show that you can't always tell what a person is going through, and that mental health conditions can and do impact people from all walks of life. The aim of this book is to help remove some of the stigma around mental health, discuss different mental health conditions, what they mean and how they are treated; and ultimately to show that mental health disorders do not have to hold anyone back from achieving their dreams.
 
The figures featured are from a range of diverse backgrounds and disciplines across science, literature, art, music, sport, politics and popular culture. Additional feature pages will explain and explore key mental health conditions including depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and eating disorders.

This book was provided for free by Edelweiss and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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A Mind Like Mine by Rachael Davis instantly reminded me of I Am Not a Label by Cerrie Burnell, and it turns out that isn’t a coincidence; they’re both published by the same publisher. While I am Not a Label features figures from past and present with a variety of different types of disabilities, A Mind Like Mine is focused on mental health conditions. It has an excellent introduction in the form of a letter to the reader from author Rachael Davis, who explains her inspiration for the book. She talks about her own mental health and how finding out that many people had mental health conditions throughout history made her feel less alone.

Her aim of this book is to start a conversation about mental health because we all have mental health, just as we have physical health, and it’s not talked about enough, she points out. Throughout A Mind Like Mine, Davis not only successfully starts that conversation, but she also discusses many different types of mental health conditions by introducing people from history and the present day. Alongside colourful illustrations, she presents an easy-to-read, compelling biography for each person. I particularly liked that Davis made a point to include quotes or sources in these biographies that showed how each person spoke about their mental health. As we don’t talk about mental health that much as a society, children might now know how to put how they’re feeling into words. I know I didn’t, and I think that I would have benefited a lot from reading these accounts in that way.

Then, after one or two biographies, depending on their conditions, Davis talks specifically about a mental health condition. Her information is educational and thorough, but most of all, she covers many questions that a young person would want to know. What impressed me with these sections was how many topics she covered and thought to cover. For example, discussing the difference between OCD and autism, which for children is very relevant, as they most likely know at least one child with autism. What impressed me the most was the section on treatments, as this is one of the most avoided topics when it comes to talking about mental health, especially when it comes to young people. It’s also one of the most important topics that they need to know about because uninformed young people become uninformed adults.

Overall, I found the information side of A Mind Like Mine to be fantastic; however, I thought the selection of modern-day figures was poorly made. While Jameela Jamil may look like a good choice on the surface, she has been extremely controversial in recent years, especially with regard to the transgender community. There was an imbalance of gender, with more women than men, and only one LGBTQIA+ person included in the book. It felt as though this section was cultivated more to sell the book by including certain famous people than to focus on talking about mental health. I also felt that name-dropping Elon Musk in Nikola Tesla’s biography just because he named his company after the scientist was completely irrelevant to a book about mental health.

I’m not quite sure if I would agree with the reading age of this being middle grade; however, that is what it has been marketed as. If anything, I would personally say it’s towards the older end of that bracket if read alone or if the child is not a confident reader. Please note that I am not a parent or a teacher, and this is just a personal opinion.

About Rachael Davis

Rachael loves the magic of getting lost in a good book. She writes books for children of all ages, both fiction and non-fiction, and is passionate about showcasing diversity and mental wellness.

Rachael studied Mathematics at Oxford University and then went to work in Finance. A few years later, her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and Rachael decided life was too short not to do what you love. She left her job, did a masters in English Literature at Surrey University, became a full-time writer, and has never looked back.

Rachael lives in Hampshire with her husband and two young daughters.

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Thanks for reading my review for A Mind Like Mine by Rachael Davis! This review was part of the GeekDis event, which you can follow on social media using the #GeekDis. You can also view all this year’s content at the GeekDis 2023 content hub!

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