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At Children’s Books Ireland, we are a team of readers, so we have long known the comfort that a book can bring during a difficult time. It’s especially gratifying that strong evidence supports this belief: We know that reading for pleasure can have a positive effect on mental well-being and can build empathy in children and youth.
It has been widely reported and documented in research that necessary public health measures, including school closings, throughout 2020 have had negative impacts on the mental health of Irish children and youth – a NUI Galway study found that 14.6 percent of high school students reported that homeschooling during the pandemic had a very negative effect on their mental health, and another 29.6 percent said it had either a fairly negative or a slightly negative effect .
In short, children and youth need all the support we can give them, and the best way to do that is to share our enthusiasm for reading and use our experience to create a resource that provides support for mental health through books.
Mind Yourself: The Mental Health and Wellbeing Reading Guide is designed to help young readers navigate difficult topics through literature. In partnership with ISPCC Childline and Jigsaw, Children’s Books Ireland’s goals are to provide a starting point for great conversations, to provide children with comfort by acknowledging their own feelings on the page, and to build empathy by giving young people a way to get in touch. the skin of others through stories.
As always, we want our reading guides to allow children and young people, with the help of a family member, caregiver, teacher or librarian, to find the right book for them at any given time.
We view Mind Yourself as a first aid kit for worries, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and any number of feelings that a child or youth may need to explore. As with a first aid kit, these books will not cure ailments of all sizes (a cast on a broken leg is not of much use), but we hope that for many young readers there will be relief and comfort from looking at their lives. reflected on the page, and a growing understanding of what others may be quietly going through.
From giving younger children language to make sense of their tantrums to fostering self-esteem, body positivity, and resilience in older children, ultimately we hope these books bring joy to the reader as well as a deeper understanding. of themselves and of others. ‘ feelings. And for those bigger issues, our partners at Jigsaw and ISPCC Childline are there to provide essential support to children and youth who may need it.
The guide is filled with over 400 books, suitable from birth to 18 years old, which are, first and foremost, excellent. These books will be enjoyed as artistic experiences, as exemplary children’s literature, as a book that is so engaging and absorbing that it makes you want to leave the bedside lamp on for “just five more minutes.”
In addition, we spend a lot of energy, time, and creative thinking to ensure that this guide is useful and usable for both adults and youth. We investigated bibliotherapy – the use of books in various forms for therapeutic or curative purposes, from self-help books on a specific topic to the act of reading about someone experiencing the same problem as you and successfully solving it.
Bibliotherapy can be used to maintain emotional well-being and develop coping skills. These books provide safe spaces to explore emotions like pain, fear, and anger, and in many cases, lest this be assumed to be a long list of bleak readings, there is light, humor, happiness, relief, and hope.
What you’ll find at Mind Yourself ranges from the serious to what might seem like minor concerns, which we wanted to include and validate: Sunday blues before a new school week, shyness, worries about fitting in.
Our goal is to make Mind Yourself available to as many people as possible; you can view or download it here. The printed guide is free of charge and will be available from all library authorities in the Republic of Ireland and the Education Authority of Northern Ireland.
How you use it is up to you: choose a book to buy or borrow and read it aloud with your little ones, at home or in class. Leave a book on a child’s bed with a note, or give him this guide with a book card to find for himself.
Illustrator Tarsila Krüse: “books are an absolutely wonderful tool to understand and process our feelings”
Tarsila Krüse’s original cover is as uplifting as the guide books. Reflecting on the concept and his process, he said: “I am learning Irish and there is a lovely curiosity about how feelings are expressed in the Irish language: a person does not ‘have a feeling’ but a ‘feeling is in’ that person – it is something. that exists outside the body, that comes and goes like the wind.
“That helped me develop the idea that everybody They carry feelings and emotions, and like clouds, sometimes they hang right above us. Some are fleeting and light, others are full of thunder and power, that’s why I created many of those clouds of feelings and emotions that we all have.
“I chose to create a character without a specific gender, a charming dog who is carrying feelings and processing all his emotions with a book. That’s what I want everyone to know: books are an absolutely wonderful tool to understand and process our feelings, those curious clouds that we carry, so that we can discover, explore, learn and grow inside and out.
For more recommended reading lists on topics including positive first experiences, difficult changes, celebrations of difference, and short reads for those who may be struggling with longer reads, visit childrensbooksireland.ie
Elaina Ryan is Executive Director of Children’s Books Ireland
