Words for Hard Things

~ by Iris Fenn

Maddie's brain never sat still. Some days that felt like magic. Some days it felt like too much.

When the doctor gives Maddie a name for the way her mind works, ADHD doesn't feel like a fix. It feels like a flashlight. For the first time, the things she's always wondered about herself have a reason behind them.

Then her mom sits her down at the kitchen table with news that has no easy word attached to it. The rent went up. They have to move.

Words for Hard Things is a picture book for children ages 7 to 9 about two things happening at once: learning you're neurodivergent, and learning your family is facing something frightening.

It doesn't tie either one up neatly. Maddie doesn't know where she'll be living next month, and her brain still buzzes and scatters. What she has by the last page is language for both, and names make hard things easier to carry.

For families navigating a new ADHD diagnosis, housing instability, or an unexpected move. For counselors and educators who need a book that meets a child in an ongoing situation rather than a resolved one.

Nothing in this book gets fixed. Everything in it gets a name.

Includes a note for grown-ups on ADHD in children and on talking with kids about housing changes.