From unstoppable boy to unstoppable girl: Oyen author expands children's series

OYEN – Oyen educator and author Ann Marie O'Connor has expanded her children's book series with a second title drawn from personal experience.

O'Connor, an educational assistant who serves on Oyen Town Council, published her first book, The Unstoppable Boy with Down Syndrome, inspired by a student named Teejay. It was Teejay who pushed her to keep going.

"You need to write one about you Ms. Ann, about your brain," he told her.

That became The Unstoppable Girl who Beat Epilepsy!, O'Connor's account of living with epilepsy for two decades, navigating seizures and medications, and ultimately undergoing a left selective amygdalohippocampectomy at the University of Alberta Hospital. The surgery, which removes small portions of the amygdala and hippocampus to address seizure activity in temporal lobe epilepsy, was a complete success. O'Connor has been seizure-free since.

A third book, The Unstoppable World with ADHD, is scheduled for release later this summer. It draws on O'Connor's own ADHD diagnosis and that of one of her sons.

O'Connor has presented her books at schools across Alberta and Saskatchewan. She spoke at a neurology conference in London, England last year and has upcoming engagements in Miami in September and Bangkok in March 2027.

Her books are available on Amazon.