Paperback: As a newborn, January sleeps for only 20 minutes at a time. As a one-year-old, she speaks in complete sentences. At two, she asks about negative numbers. By three, she has literally hundreds of imaginary friends. All the signs suggest she's gifted.
At six years old, Michael Schofield's daughter, January, was diagnosed with one of the most severe cases of child-onset schizophrenia that doctors had ever seen. In January's case, she is hallucinating 95 percent of the time that she is awake. Potent psychiatric drugs that would level most adults barely faze her.
January, "Jani" to her family, has literally hundreds of imaginary friends. They go by names like 400-the-Cat, 100 Degrees, and 24 Hours and live on an island called "Calalini," which she describes as existing "on the border of my world and your world."
Some of these friends are good, and some of them, such as 400, are very bad. They tell her to jump off buildings, attack her brother, and scream at strangers.
But when her baby brother Bodhi arrives, January's behaviour becomes increasingly violent, her never-ending delusions and hallucinations interspersed with paroxysms of rage that eventually force her parents to live in separate adjoining apartments.
This harrowing memoir is the desperate story of Michael's mission to find out what is wrong with his highly intelligent daughter. As he does the rounds of child psychologists, doctors and locked hospital wards, the author provides an unflinchingly honest account of parenting, as well as an indictment of the lack of care for children with severe mental illness.
But above all, January First (2013) shows the passionate dedication of a father who refuses to give up on his little girl even as her behaviour becomes ever more alien. It is the inspiring tale of their resolute determination and faith.
About the author: Michael Schofield does not consider himself a writer. He claims he is more of a story teller. January First is his first book.
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