A Visit with Jax Peters Lowell, author of No More Cupcakes & Tummy Aches

Jax Peters Lowell, author.

The 2008 Gluten Free Expo in Oak Brook, Illinois hosted a Celiac kids’ Cup Cake Club party and book reading with author Jax Peters Lowell. The event took place on Saturday afternoon and included more than 30 eager participants, young and old.

I took my three boys. We arrived early, so my eldest, recently diagnosed with Celiac, hunkered down immediately with his newly autographed copy and began reading it on his own  while we waited for the party to start. He was riveted. He identified so clearly with little Izzie O’Brien and her struggle to find her way from chronic tummy aches to a return to good health, her struggles to belong and feel normal at school and at home were his own.

This fictitious child understood him in a way that those of us that love him so dearly cannot.

Lowell begins the tale:

“Izzie wasn’t very tall for seven. Not even for six. Or five. Even if she stood on her tippy, tippy toes, her pony tail, just reached the top of Daddy’s chair.”

Poor little Izzie believes that if she eats loads of cupcakes she will finally grow tall enough to be a ballerina. But after too many cupcakes one night she gets a terrible tummy ache that won’t go away. When the family doctor tells Lizzie that she has “Silly Yak” it deeply troubles her and all of a sudden family holidays and class parties become the source of tears. But she soon learns that being Gluten free can be fun especially when the people who love her go out of their way to make her feel special. The book is illustrated by Jane Kirkwood and includes a foreword by Alessio Fasano, M.D., Director of the Center for Celiac Research.

Lowell has gotten to the heart of the matter with this book, and I highly recommend it to any family with a newly diagnosed child.

Visit Lowell’s special link for a sample excerpt from the book.

To visit her website and read about her other books, visit: jaxlowell.com.

For more information on the Gluten Free Expo, visit their website at: glutenfreeclasses.com.

Tags: Book, Celiac, Children, Gluten Free Expo, Gluten-free, Jax Lowell, Jen Cafferty, Kids, Review

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Meet the Author

Caryn Talty

The editor of Healthy-family.org has a master's degree in English from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor of science degree in special education. She has taught students from early elementary school through college freshman level. Today she enjoys reading and writing about both hot topics and those not so commonly discussed on other websites. Most of her days are spent playing all kinds of make-believe with her three very young and active sons. | All articles by Caryn Talty.

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