WHEN A FRIEND NEEDS A FRIEND is a book I wrote and illustrated about Oskar an Aya, who are the best of friends. They love to build things together, go to the construction site and make the most beautiful creations. But when Oskar starts to feel very sad Aya doesn’t know how to reach him. 

He builds a little tree house and wants to hide away from the world. With the help of their friends from the building site Aya finds a way to connect to Oskar. The book draws on my own experience of being friends with people who struggle with mental health issues. As the book is all about building I decided to make all the images with a collage technique, so I am almost building an image myself in the process of illustrating with little pieces of paper as the building blocks.

I hope this book encourages children to embrace all of their emotions and makes them feel seen.

Published by Scholastic.