Coco Goes Back To School

This is the first in a series of Diabetesaliciousness blog posts related to children and tween books with a type 1 spin brought to you by the  Lilly Disney  partnership. 

Not only are these books important learning tools to children around the globe living with Type 1 Diabetes, these books are important global teaching tools for the public to learn about living with Type 1 Diabetes. 

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Last year Lilly & Disney introduced Coco the Monkey, the first Disney Character with Type 1 Diabetes and the book "Coco And Goofy's Goofy Day," a The Children With Diabetes Friends For Life Conference in 2011. 

Coco And Goofy's Goofy was was the first in a series of books geared towards educating the public about living with Type 1 Diabetes.

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This year the second book in the Coco Disney/Lilly  Coco series,  
"Coco Goes Back To School" was introduced at the 2012 Children With diabetes Friends For Life Conference a few weeks ago. 
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I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed this book and I LOVED how once again, diabetes realities were incorporated into the storyline.

This time around our heroine Coco was nervous about going back to school and introducing her Type 1 Diabetes to her classmates - which is very very real fear for people with diabetes, regardless of the age or the type.

But Coco's pals Micky and Goofy go to school with her to help and support her as she explains her Type 1 Diabetes to her classmates and answers any and all diabetes questions they have.

Coco has such a great experience telling her classmates about her diabetes that she decides to enter the school Science Fair with a diabetes centric project. 

And while I don't want to give the ending away, lets just say that the fabulous Miss Coco & Company show everyone that living with diabetes doesn't hold her back!! 

With that being said, in the future, I'd like to hear Coco could say more than "EEK, EEK," in monkey speak and here's why.

We (and by WE I mean US,) tell everyone (both young and old) who live with diabetes never to be afraid to speak up when it comes to their diabetes. 
And as people with diabetes, we are continually told from the moment we are diagnosed to let people at school, work, at home and anywhere else in between know that we need to eat, test our blood sugar, etc. 

Coco is an honest to goodness Type 1 Diabetes role model and I'd love her to speak in English ( or any other language the books are translated to) not monkey speak. 

I want Coco to develop her diabetes voice and use it, so that others reading can do the same - A.k.a, "Monkey see, monkey do!

In the end, expanding Coco's use of language is a Disney decision not a Lilly one, because Coco is a Disney character. 

A cutielicious, amazing, type 1 diabetes Disney character who I love! 

So I'm sure you're wondering how you can get a copy of the Coco books and the other Lilly/Disney Diabetes books and I'm going to tell you. 
 You need to ask your pediatric Endo or other healthcare provider to get your free copies. 

 Personally, I'd like to see several copies of all the books available on the Disney's Type 1 Diabetes Book Shelf   available at elementary schools and public libraries.

WHY? 

Because these books are incredible diabetes teaching tools - and not just for children around the globe living with diabetes. 
These books also act as global teaching tools to educate others with working pancreases to learn the facts about living the diabetes life, 24X7 and with no time off for good behaviors, vacations or trips to Disney for that matter! 

Bottom Line: These books perpetuate the realities of living with type 1 Diabetes to the public while dispelling the myths - And that's HUGE. 

I think it's great that Lilly & Disney make these books available for free to Type 1 children and their families - Hence the whole getting through your healthcare provider free of charge.

Down the line I hope that Lilly & Disney find a way to make them available to EVERYONE.

For more info about Disney's Type 1 Diabetes commitment and some great info about parenting and your family's life with diabetes, checkout their website at: 

http://family.go.com/parenting/pkg-type-1-diabetes/

Coco & Me hanging out at Friends For Life, 2012 ~

And lastly but not least: I think Coco ROCKS & I HEART her! 

Full disclosure: I did not receive any money to write this post or review the Disney/Lilly Books for children/tweens with diabetes that you'll be reading about in future blog posts.  

I did however attend ( and on Lilly's dime,) the Lilly Blogger Conference at the end of May in Indianapolis. 

At the conference I not only learned about the history of Lilly and Diabetes, I was also given copies of the  all the books on Disney's Type 1 Bookshelf, except for the latest Coco book, which I was lucky enough to get at Children with Diabetes Friends For Life Conference two weeks ago. 
And yours truly has spent a good amount of time reading,taking notes and reviewing said books so I could gather my thoughts & report back to you. And you'll have the opportunity to read those thoughts very soon. Including tomorrow, when I write about my experience in the kitchen "Dishing It Up Disney Style."  
Stay tuned.....