Books That Heal Kids: tragedy

Showing posts with label tragedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tragedy. Show all posts

Book Review: The Day War Came



From the Book Jacket: Imagine if, on an ordinary school day, after a morning studying tadpoles and drawing birds, war came to your town and turned it to rubble. Imagine you lost everything and everyone, and you had to make a dangerous journey all alone. Imagine that there was no welcome at the end, and no room for you even to take a seat at school. And then imagine that a child, just like you, gave you a gift, something ordinary but so very, very important. 

Inspired by true events, this deeply affecting book evokes the experience of a young refugee and shows the hope a simple act of kindness can bring in the wake of the devastation of war. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is such a moving book and really evokes strong emotions. Although it's hard to read about the suffering that children endure as refugees, I felt hope at the end of the story because of the goodness of children and people. We can heal suffering through kindness. We can push hate away by connecting to one another through our humanity. Such an amazing representation of what is going on in our world though the eyes of a child. 

A Link to This Book:
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Book Review: Most People


Author: Michael Leannah
Illustrator: Jennifer E Morris

About This Book: Sometimes the world can seem scary, it's true. But most people are good people, just like you. Anxious adults want children to be aware of dangers, but shouldn't kids be aware of kindness too?

Young children hear adults talking, they see things on TV, and they're sometimes left thinking that the world is a place full of dangers and bad feelings. Yes, children need to be careful of strangers, but they also need to know that most people are good, kind, and helpful, and one of the great delights in life is reinforcing that knowledge through our daily interactions with others. 


Why It's On My Bookshelf: With all of the violence and chaos that seems to surround us more and more in the world, I was so happy to see this beautiful book. It's a reminder to us and our children that there are more good people then bad people in this world. Most people are good people. It's so easy to get focused on the things that scare us. Lets remember to set our hearts on minds on all the helpers around us. This is a comforting book to pull of the shelf when times seem uncertain and scary.  

A Link to This Book: 
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Book Review: Healing Days - A Guide for Kids Who Have Experienced Trauma

Author: Susan Farber Straus
Illustrator: Maria Bogade
Interest Level: Ages 6 and Up

From the Book Jacket: Healing Days is a sensitive and reassuring story intended for children who have experienced trauma and covers the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that many kids have after a bad and scary thing happens.

A useful book to read with a parent or therapist, Healing Days emphasizes that children are not to blame for what happened, and that they can get help and look forward to a happy future. Kids will begin to understand their response to the trauma and learn some strategies for feeling safer, more relaxed, and more confident.


An extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers, including a list of helpful resources, is available for download at the publishers website at www.apa.org/pubs/magination

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is probably my favorite find of the summer. First of all, the name of the book is beautiful and after I read it what came to my mind was "this is so healing for kids!" Second - just look at the below and you will see exactly why you need this on your counseling shelf:


 
teaches kids about "fight, flight, or freeze"
(my jaw about hit the floor - yes to this!)

 
My Safety Plan (I write these with kids ALL the time.
So I love how this is reinforced).

 
My Feel-Good Plan - Another great tool to use with kids.
 
Healing Days does not reference a concrete traumatic experience. It leaves it open to the reader to relate their own experience to the feelings going on. Breathing and practicing yoga are also discussed as tools to help kids. I appreciate how the author took the time to really explain to kids what these coping mechanisms are and how to use them. It's WELL written. I just absolutely love it and will be recommending it to ALL my counselor friends.
 
It's definitely geared towards kids who are going to be working directly with a therapist. But even if a child is not seeing a therapist - it can STILL be used to help you guide kids towards healing. You can be creative with the words.

What an OUTSTANDING resource.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:



 
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Book Review: Rabbityness

Author/Illustrator: Jo Empson
Interest Level: Ages 5 and Up

From the Book Jacket: This is a story of a very special rabbit. He enjoys doing rabbity things, but he also loves - well, un-rabbity things. His boundless creative talent is a source of joy and inspiration to the other rabbits. 

When Rabbit suddenly disappears, no one knows where he has gone. His friends are desolate. But, as it turns out, Rabbit has left behind some very special gifts for them, to help them discover their own unrabbity talents. Rabbityness positively introduces children to dealing with a loss of any kind. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Sometimes I get requests from parents or teachers for books dealing with very specific grief situations. If I can't find the perfect fit from my bookshelf I definitely feel frustrated. Rabbityness is a really special story I can use to cover a lot of different grief or tragedy situations. Rabbit disappears in the story - but no one knows why or what happened to him. I like that there's no answer as to what happened because I can help the child relate their own story to Rabbit.

"One day. Rabbit disappeared. The other rabbits were very sad. They couldn't find him anywhere. The woods were quiet and gray. All that Rabbit had left was a hole...a DEEP dark hole."

Wow. The deep dark hole can represent a lot of different feelings for children. The second part of the story shows the other rabbits learning how to cope with their loss. What I see as a healing step for kids is to talk about how to fill the void they might be feeling. What coping skills could they use to fill that deep dark hole.......

Absolutely love this one and see it HELPING me as a counselor and the grieving children I work with throughout the year.

A Link to This Book:
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Book Review: Flood

Author/Illustrator: Alvaro F Villa
Interest Level: All Ages

For a Google Preview of this book please go HERE

About the Book: When a flood threatens to destroy a family’s home, they must leave. What will they return to once the waters recede? This intense, beautiful wordless picture book looks at a flood’s effect on a family  and carries a simple message of hope and recovery.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I've never seen a book like this. It's exceptional. The children who have recently experienced Hurricane Sandy came immediately to my mind. The pictures unfold so beautifully telling a story of a family who is trying to save their house from a flood. Their home is destroyed but it's the rebuilding that will help children understand  when an awful tragedy happens - life can go on and you can be happy again.

What makes Flood so powerful is it is wordless. This is a really smart and non-threatening approach to help children open up about their feelings and fears after a traumatic event. Most importantly it delivers the message that starting over is possible and can be positive. If you are working with children who have been impacted by hurricanes, floods, or any type of house tragedy (fire) please get this book. It's a very therapeutic and healing resource. 

Note: I also plan on using this book to teach empathy.

A Link to This Book:
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