Books by Michael-Christopher Suman

Two books written from inside the MCAS community — one a memoir on invisible illness, one a picture book for the children living with it.

Cover of The Sky, a memoir by Michael-Christopher Suman

Memoir

The Sky

by Michael-Christopher Suman

The Sky is a book on invisible illness, silence, and the human need for recognition. In this deeply personal work, Michael-Christopher Suman brings voice to what so often remains unspoken — the weight of pain that is unseen, the struggle for dignity, and the quiet hope that persists even in the midst of suffering.

More than a memoir, the book is a journey through fog, storm, and silence. Each chapter becomes both testimony and reflection, offering readers a space to recognize themselves, their loved ones, or the unseen battles of others.

With raw honesty and lyrical prose, it challenges the tendency to look away and instead calls for empathy, faith, and presence. It is a book for patients, caregivers, and all who believe in the healing power of being heard.

Where to find it
Apple Books Google Play Books Amazon Goodreads
Cover of Muffy, a children’s picture book about Mast Cell Activation Syndrome by Michael-Christopher Suman

Children’s picture book

Muffy

by Michael-Christopher Suman

Muffy is a children’s picture book created especially for children living with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and other invisible illnesses.

Through the story of Muffy, a gentle rabbit whose body sometimes reacts in unexpected ways, young readers are given a way to understand their own experiences without medical language or overwhelming explanations. Using sensitive, recognizable animal characters and simple visual storytelling, the book helps children see that needing extra care is not their fault — and that their feelings are valid.

Designed to be comforting rather than instructional, it also offers parents, caregivers, and siblings a tool to start gentle conversations about MCAS, empathy, and support.

Where to find it
Apple Books Google Play Books Amazon Goodreads

Why there are two books

The Sky is 144 pages and was written for readers old enough to read about what is happening to them. Much of it covers the part of illness that does not show up on a test: being doubted, being told the symptoms are stress, the long run of appointments that ends without an answer. It is a memoir rather than a medical account, and there is nothing in it a patient would need a glossary for.

Muffy is 35 pages and answers a different question. A six-year-old with MCAS does not need the mechanism explained. What that child needs to know is that they are not in trouble, that none of this is their fault, and that the adults around them are not afraid. Clinical language does not do that, and neither does pretending nothing is wrong. Muffy is a rabbit whose body sometimes reacts in ways she did not ask for, and the book stays at that level the whole way through. For a parent, it is easier to start the conversation with a book open than without one.

Michael-Christopher Suman was twelve when his mother was diagnosed with MCAS. Both books come out of the years after that: one written from inside the experience, the other written for the children living it now. The nonprofit started in the same stretch of years, for the same reason.

Every copy supports the mission.

Detailing for MCAS funds research, sends cards to patients, and supports families navigating Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. What the books earn goes to the same place.

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