New Book: 'Ellie, Engulfed' (Kaiseisha)
https://www.kaiseisha.co.jp/books/9784037280802
The protagonist, Ellie, is a 12-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. She relies on a wheelchair because her legs do not move. Her single mother is a Japanese language teacher who works while raising Ellie. Although she can communicate with her father over the phone, he always prioritizes his new family. Perhaps because she has raised her daughter with such constant, hands-on care, her mother continues to treat Ellie like a small child.
Although Ellie can do more things on her own now, she still needs her mother's help. She relies on her for assistance with the bathroom, commuting between home and school, and going to the hospital. At school, she also has an aide named Lauren.
Being with someone all the time means she has almost no time to herself. Even so, Ellie has something she loves: baking.
"
The Great British Bake Off" judge Mary Berry is her particular favorite.(In English-speaking countries, Mary Berry is extremely famous as a baker, has deep ties to the British Royal Family, has served food and sweets to Elizabeth II, and has published many cookbooks filled with diverse ideas; she is so well-known that almost everyone in the UK and US knows who she is. There is a Mary Berry channel on video sites, so if you are interested, please search for it and take a look.)
Now, the story begins to move when Ellie is told by her hospital doctor that she no longer needs to take medication, and her mother decides to move to the southwestern region where her parents live.
Ellie, who didn't really want to move from the place she was accustomed to, gradually finds friends and meets a wonderful teacher, which leads to her transformation.
In Japan, cerebral palsy refers to a motor function impairment caused by brain damage that occurs from the time the fetus is in the mother's womb until four weeks after birth. It is said to occur in about 2 out of every 1,000 births.
(Data: https://mhlw-grants.niph.go.jp/project/28043?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Actually, I bought this original book in America many years ago and kept it on hand. I read a little and thought it was nice, but I left it aside. Perhaps God thought, 'Hey, you do something about it,' and so I ended up working on it.
(At the time, 'The Great British Bake Off' was not yet being broadcast in Japan, so if I had released it then, it might not have been in the same format as it is now.)
The author of this book is a parent who actually has a child with cerebral palsy, so it is very realistic, and the honest feelings of the person involved are depicted clearly. It is a work that blows away the
assumption that one cannot do something because they are disabled.
The girl in 'Jump in a Wheelchair!', which I published through Shogakukan a few years ago, was also a spirited girl, and this one is also a very pleasant girl to read about. (The protagonist of that book did not have cerebral palsy, but was born with a spinal disability and lived in a wheelchair, though she loved wheelchair motocross.)
Please do read the book mentioned above as well.