FIRST ON FOX: A mom of three boys, Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News contributor, has written a new book for children along with her middle son.
Its message is both urgent and everlasting.
"Last summer, my son was one of the many children who was given some bad news by a doctor," she told Fox News Digital in a phone interview on Wednesday, just a day ahead of her book's publication.
"And as a way to cope with that, he started writing a lot," she said.
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"He's always been very artistic, very musical — but he was really starting to write short stories."
Dr. Saphier said that her son "just loved writing about this little family of monkeys. And I wanted to help turn a hard time into something positive for him and our family."
And so, she explained, when it came to the idea of turning the story into a published book, "I went with Brave Books because I love their philosophy and what they're about — faith, family, love. And they thought it was a great idea."
The new children's book, complete with full-color illustrations, can help "other kids who may receive some bad news — whether it's from a doctor, or at school — and just remind them of the importance of the family unit," she said, noting that mother and son wrote the book together.
Right now in American culture, added Dr. Saphier, "it just feels like society is teaching our children to depend less and less on family. And we really need to be teaching our children that family is to be cherished."
She said, "Parents and children should be intimately associated, not separated."
This is true especially during hard times, she said.
"That is when you really need that family unit."
A board-certified radiologist, Dr. Saphier currently serves as the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-Monmouth in New Jersey; she has advanced fellowship training in breast and oncologic imaging from the Mayo Clinic.
She is also an assistant professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.
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Dr. Saphier said there are some similarities in the story with her own family in real life.
For example, the "father monkey" in the story has blue eyes, just as her own husband does, she said — and the three young monkeys in the book also have blue eyes, just as her three sons do.
But the mama monkey has green eyes, as she does.
"There are very small things — little nuances in the book — that people may or may not pick up that reflect us," she said.
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She said it's no accident that the family in the story is very musical — as is her family.
But "what I really loved about the book," she added, "was that, instead of allowing Jeff [the character based on her son Hudson] to stay dispirited about the bad news he's received, he makes a ‘would if I could’ list, which his family helps bring to life."
And "even though it's a challenging situation, Jeff learns how much his family really means to him — and the importance of leaning on them during difficult times."
The message, she said, "is to remind people of how important the family unit is — and while it may not resolve all of life's issues or challenges, things are more tolerable and better as long as the family is there together."
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She said her family right now is very interested in being together as much as possible, rather than having each child or each family member go off and do his or her own thing.
"Life goes by fast," she said.
"And we are spending significantly more time together now as a family," she said. "It's really important."
Anyone can purchase a copy of Dr. Saphier's new book at www.nicolesaphiermd.com.
