Author releases book in partnership with children’s charity
By Cleo Robertson
A Glasgow based children’s author has released a book in partnership with the Glasgow’s Children Hospital Charity.
Red Visits The Hospital was officially released in connection with World Book Day on 6 March 2025 and was part of celebrations at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. This included a story and drawing session with the author Ross Collins.
Mark Fisher, a parent said: “I am sure this book would have helped – having something visual with a storyline is very relatable for children. I think stress is a factor for children around hospital and they pick up on worry coming from parents and carers.”
The story follows a young squirrel called Red who wakes up with spots on her tail, she then travels to the hospital to get help. When Red gets there, she finds it a positive experience where she gets the support she needs.
Ross said: “Animals are a good idea for children’s books because they can associate themselves with them, whereas if you made it a child, they might think I don’t look like them and it makes it a little bit sillier.”
He added: “This is a very Scottish book, it’s particularly about this hospital, there’s a million books about visiting hospital for the first time. The charity really wanted something about this hospital.”
It was published by the charity and the illustrations were carefully designed to show recognisable features of the Royal Hospital for children to identify. This aims to help children identify the hospital and set expectations for their visit in a comforting way that intends to reduce anxiety. Ross went with a squirrel to continue the Scottish theme into the illustrations and wanted something memorable about her which is why Red has spots on her tail.
Ross was born in Glasgow and is still based in the city. He won the Macmillan Children’s Book Prize in 1994 for his debut novel The Sea Hole. He has illustrated or written more than 150 books. Ross also does character development work for companies such as Disney and Laika, posters for theatres and talks at festivals when he’s not working on his books
Ross said: “We wanted to show each aspect of what a child would encounter, so it’s right down to the charity team who would meet you and their uniform colour, to the reception staff and you get weighed and measured. There’s a waiting room and then you visit the doctor. So that a child would know what to expect.”
Fees from the book will go towards the charity so that they will be able to fund a book project that will start up later this year. The project comes from the children hospital charity trying to help meet the needs of children beyond medical care, and from that they recognised a lot of the children didn’t have access to books. To combat this the money from the book will be used by Ross’ publishers will send books to the hospital.
