completely true<\/em>. Gloria and Raymond go out one night and actually find the enormous dog that\u2019s caused everyone\u2019s depression. Naturally, such an enemy is dangerous to fight. Getting too close to it can make you lose yourself to depression.<\/p>\nLuckily, the kids discover that they can fight back by saying the word \u201cbrilliant\u201d (as in \u201ccool\u201d or \u201cgreat\u201d). This word brings light and happiness to everyone who hears it and makes the dog lose its powers. Soon Gloria and Raymond are joined by the other children of Dublin whose loved ones have fallen into depression. They all chase the dog and shout \u201cbrilliant\u201d at it to destroy the beast and retrieve Ireland\u2019s funny bone. They also have a friend who\u2019s a vampire, but only professionally.<\/p>\n
This book is absolutely ridiculous<\/em>. It has one of the most random plots I have ever come across. Still, Brilliant<\/em> largely gets away with this randomness because it\u2019s actually a very charming book. The writing style is simple but captivating, easily conveying the minds of young children. The story also has a wonderful atmosphere of whimsy to it, so when things like a random vampire appear you\u2019re likely to say, \u201cHuh. Sure, why not?\u201d<\/p>\nThe problems with Brilliant<\/em> start to emerge when you think about it more broadly. This feels like a teaching book, but what\u2019s the lesson? Is it supposed to be about the nature of depression? The book does a good job in certain spots of describing how depression feels in kid-friendly language, but that\u2019s the extent of it. Aside from that, depression is presented as a condition that can be fixed if one is just determined and \u201cbrilliant\u201d enough.<\/p>\nThese are children who not only cure countless people of a mental illness but also apparently fix Ireland\u2019s economy overnight by shouting a single word. That … that\u2019s just a grossly irresponsible message to send. Many kids live with family members with depression. How is this book supposed to help them? Being cheerful isn\u2019t going to cure the people they love and that realization is only going to cause the children more pain. People with depression constantly<\/em> hear about how our illness is just in our heads. We just need to \u201cthink positive\u201d or \u201cget out more.\u201d And I get it; that can be helpful advice if someone is simply sad. It\u2019s not a cure for a mental illness. Trust me, we do<\/em> try to be positive. We try to think happy thoughts. We push ourselves to spend time with friends. We take up yoga. We try<\/em>. We are constantly <\/em>trying. Unfortunately, depression is still a medical issue and it needs medical treatment. The laughter of children isn\u2019t going to change that any more than a motivational poster would.<\/p>\nOverall, I think Brilliant<\/em> has some good ideas and wonderful writing going for it. Unfortunately, it falls flat when it comes to having any constructive meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite good ideas and wonderful writing, Brilliant<\/em> falls flat when it comes to having any constructive meaning regarding depression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[240],"genre":[9],"age_category":[6],"disability":[28,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7271,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions\/7271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"age_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age_category?post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"disability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disability?post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/center><\/div>However, what the kids overhear makes them believe there are supernatural forces afoot. When the grown-ups speak sadly of \u201cthe black dog of depression,\u201d the children assume that it\u2019s a literal dog that has caused nationwide depression by stealing Ireland\u2019s funny bone.<\/p>\n