Lights Out, Leonard: an all too relatable bedtime routine
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A perfect book for helping children and grown ups face their fears and find ways to help each other.
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Brothers Forever: a sweet look at navigating transitions
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Brothers Forever is a sweet story about how life changes for two brothers as the older goes to school, told from the perspective of the younger brother.
Ages 2 - 8
Read MoreWilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge: a loving look at memory loss and friendship
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That’s a major gap in a child’s life and one we tried to fill with elderly friends from church and other grandparents and great-grandparents of friends.
I think that one of the reasons we realised this was so important was that we had both read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge dozens and dozens of times.
Read MoreThe New Small Person: welcoming a new baby can be a tricky business!
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Three-year-old Ivy is excitedly awaiting the arrival of a baby brother in a couple of months. She’s looking for things that will be the same and different for them.
He’ll be little and she’ll be big. But, after a bath: ‘he’ll have a naked bottom just like me’. Both true.
Ivy is pretty keen for this baby to arrive. (So am I, truth be told.) Still, there’s bound to be some adjusting to do.
The New Small Person is all about the adjustment – and the process.
Ages 2 to 8
Read MoreBecause Amelia Smiled: how a little girl's smiles went round the world and back
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This is a wonderfully circular book. Amelia smiles, her smile is contagious and spreads all around the world and finally finds its way back to her - and she smiles again!
I love a book that shows (but doesn’t preach about) the interconnectedness of people around the world – this book manages exactly that.
And I think the key is the joyfulness of the illustrations. There’s a fuzziness* to them that invites the reader into the edges of the world each character inhabits.
Read MoreThe Whirlpool: a book to scaffold language about emotions
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It can happen that, in the midst of crisis, children need explicit words to help them give structure to fears and thoughts and hopes. The Whirlpool is a book for those times.
I’ve seen the power of read-it-before-you-need-it books many times and, with that solid foundation, a book that gives words to feelings can be the next piece in the puzzle that is emotional resilience.
In The Whirlpool, we see ourselves in the everyday life of a sweet polar bear who is full of confidence and brimming with happiness while he is '… a mastermind. A storyteller. A traveller and adventurer.”
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