Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows
Dear Grown-ups
Over the past twenty years, extensive research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has revealed strong connections between early adversity and many children’s academic weaknesses, disruptive behaviours, and negative health and life outcomes. Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows aims to help survivors of ACEs and toxic stress by giving them a medium through which to explore their experiences, particularly their struggles with reading and academic work. The book also highlights the need to find transformative ways of engaging with perpetrators of ACEs and the role families and communities can play in helping survivors develop resilience and hope.
This story is based on true events from my childhood. It depicts some of the ordeals, adult behaviours, and social realities that shaped my life and the lives of some of my
peers. As a survivor of multiple ACEs, I am engaged in a lifelong journey to understand and reduce their impacts. Healing is an ongoing process, but what I have already learned has not only given me an understanding of the complex literacy and health challenges I have endured; it has also led to significant improvements in my wellbeing and relationships with others.
In addition to my life, the book draws inspiration and text from ‘How to Read’, an essay by Jamaican human rights advocate, Marcus Garvey. It also has an appendix that provides a brief overview of ACEs. We recommend that you use this book as an entry point to conversations on ACEs and toxic stress. We hope it will inspire you to do further research and to join communities that are working to reduce the prevalence of ACEs around the world.
About the Author
Juleus Ghunta is a Chevening Scholar, children’s writer, a member of Jamaica’s National Task Force on Character Education, and an advocate in the Caribbean’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) movement. He holds a BA in Media from The University of the West Indies, Mona, and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Bradford, UK. Juleus’ work explores the links between toxic stress and academic underachievement, and the varied effects of false positivity and emotional invalidation on the choices and hopes of survivors of complex trauma. His poems and essays on ACEs have appeared in 30+ journals across 16 countries. His picture book Tata and the Big Bad Bull was published by CaribbeanReads in 2018 and he is the co-editor of the December 2019 and March 2020 issues of Interviewing the Caribbean (The UWI Press), which are focused on children’s literature and ACEs in the Caribbean. He is the coeditor of a special issue of PREE Magazine on ACEs and storytelling.
