Archie Can’t Sit Still

By Davilyn Lynch, Dani Vee & James Layton.

Reviewed by Margarite Igras

This fun, yet serious book, was written by two authors who were diagnosed with ADHD as adults. They wanted to use humour to breakdown the stereotypes of being neurodivergent and to encourage discussion about what it means to have ADHD. Dani Vee has written several picture books aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds, including My Supercharged ADHD Brain, My Spinning Anxious Brain, and My Extraordinary Mum, as well as My Pet Croc and Riley’s Failproof Guide to BREAKING a School Record.  James Layton is the founder of Larrikin House Publishing, and co-author of both this book and My Supercharged ADHD Brain. Davilyn Lynch has cleverly illustrated all the 32 pages, with super-animated Archie and his yellow T-shirt emblazoned with the words ADHD is awesome.

No matter how hard he tries, Archie just can’t sit still. He has lots of ideas in his head, is quite disruptive in class and finds it impossible to control his body especially, when he is bored. He fidgets, taps, thumps, twitches, shakes and is always fizzing with energy. One day, his parents introduce him to the go-kart track. There he sits very still as he focusses on staying within the racing line and for a short while, The world went quiet.

Self-taught illustrator Davilyn Lynch has filled each page with her colourful illustrations of a very energetic Archie negotiating life at home, school, and of course on the go-kart track. The simple text is dispersed with some bold font highlighting some of Archie’s issues to the reader.

This positive book explores the challenges of a child having ADHD, offering some strategies used by the teacher, and the parents that can lead to further discussion about neurodiversity.

Larrikin House 2026

Davilyn Lynch