BIBLIOTHERAPY: BOOKS ABOUT BIG FEELINGS HEAL! • by Natascha Biebow

If you know me, it’s no secret if that I don’t go anywhere without a book to read. At the end of the day, I turn to a book to offer a quiet space of calm, a welcome escape that sets me up for a good night’s sleep. Reading makes me feel centred and whole. I like to sit and look at my bookshelf and find the book for that moment, for that frame of mind, for that state of heart. THERE IS A BOOK FOR THAT!

 

There's a book for that, no matter what!

Much has been written about the importance of books in instilling empathy in young readers, and how reading is the key for children’s success in later life. But can reading also heal? Are books actually good for our mental health?

 

According to neuroscientist and science journalist Richard Sima, “Researchers are investigating the impact of reading experiences and reporting evidence of promising mental and social health benefits . . . Now practitioners are exploring new models using the literary arts to support mental health in clinics, classrooms, and communities worldwide.”

 

Young children may have not yet experienced the whole wide world,
but they still have big feelings and need ways to process and deal with them.

 

We are wired for story. In the early years, the lines between pretend and reality are frequently blurred. Young children are often deeply connected to fictional characters and toys, interacting with them as if they were real. They are naturally drawn to telling and inventing stories in their imaginative play.

For young children fictional characters can seem rea

Reading stories allows children to step into others’ shoes, building neural pathays in their brains that prompt new ways of responding to situations (Tamir, D. I. et al., 2016). The more these new neural routes are used and practised, with each re-reading of the story, the more routine they become. Reading with a trusted adult can help children navigate their own big feelings and experiences, because stories validate children’s experiences and emotions and model new ways of thinking. 

 

Reading together can be healing.

In this study, researchers proposed that Bibliotherapy could offer a low-cost and accessible way to improve the mental health. How does it work? There are three stages:

Identification: the reader identifies with a story character and bonds with them.

 

Catharsis: through the story, the reader experiences the conflict alongside the character and how s/he resolves it.

 

Insight: the reader reflects on their own circumstances in relation to the story – the characters’ emotions, behaviours and conflict resolution model - and considers how they might apply these tools to their own lives.

 

Bibliotherapy

 

• validates young readers’ emotions and experiences

• models how to self-regulate, deal with conflict and big emotions

• opens a dialogue using the story as a vehicle for starting the discussion

 

I recently attended an excellent SCBWI talk by Melissa Manlove, formerly Executive Editor at Chronicle Books, “The Big Feelings Picture Book Workshop: Transforming Your Past Into Reader's Futures”. In the seminar, Manlove argued that “children's emotional lives are as big and as rich as adults’—and that they need stories that honor that and help them to navigate these essentially human experiences.”

 

All children deserve a wide variety of books to reflect their feelings and experiences. Libraries in schools and communities are essential resources for creating access to bibliotherapy!

Something Melissa said in her talk resonated with me – happy children are not children who don’t know pain, trauma or difficult situations; they are not children who don’t have big feelings.  

All children are dealing with something, small problems – like finding friends or fear of the dark – and difficult, bigger issues – like having lost a loved one, grappling with injustice, or the displacement of war –

 

But the difference is that happy, well-adjusted children know there is a path to the top of the mountain:

 

THEY HAVE A BOOK FOR THAT!

 

#ReadForEmpthy Collection 2024

Stories children them that there is a path, a way forward to get to the other side of the hard, bigger issues. Children need to know that there are ways to slay their dragons, to deal with their problems. 

 

Stories offer a path - empathy, hope and sometimes solutions.

 

Books offer a safe space for exploring big feelings and big or small problems. 

 

Melissa encouraged authors to not shy away from tackling big feelings and big issues in picture books, just because they’re for younger readers, but instead to show children the path for how they might solve and navigate these through story. It is up to us to create the book for THAT! ⭐

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By tapping into our own big feelings and ways to navigate life, our childhood memories and experiences, and then innovate in a child-centred way, we can create books that will empower and resonate with the young readers of the future. ⭐

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*Find recommendations of books that inspire empathy in the #ReadForEmpthy Collection 2024
*And Books that Help when the Words are Hard to Find on Books That Help

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Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of the award-winning The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books, and selected as a best STEM Book 2020. Editor of numerous prize-winning books, she runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission, and is the Editorial Director for Five Quills. Find out about her new picture book webinar courses! She is Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

Make Way for Art! How Picture Books Are Ideal for Building Visual Literacy in Digital Natives • By Natascha Biebow

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

The readers of our picture books are digital natives. 

They are driven by the visual.

The Internet has completely revolutionised the way images serve communication. People currently upload and share 1.8 billion photos every single day. On Instagram alone, 50 billion photos have been uploaded since 2010.

In fact, 90% of what we take in in the world is visual.

 

Surprising, even reading is visual: In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center found that when we look at a known word, our brain sees it like a picture, not a group of letters needing to be processed. Neurons in a small brain area in the left side of the visual cortex remember how the whole word looks — using what could be called a visual dictionary.

 

Pictures are the new language. Yet the focus in education is very much on reading and writing words, on verbal literacy – not on art, not on interpreting and analysing images. But, now more than ever, children need visual literacy.

 

Why?

 

“According to researchers, educators, museum professionals, filmmakers, and artists, visual literacy can improve creativity, critical thinking, educational achievement, empathy towards others, and ability to decipher technology.” (source OpenEd)

 

If you’ve ever read a picture book with a child, you’ll appreciate that they can read it long before they can read the words. This is of course because visual learning is the precursor to verbal learning.  

 

Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels

In his time at the Toledo Museum of Art, Brian Kennedy did some research into visual literacy: “Nearly 30% of the brain’s cortex is devoted to visual processing. More than the other human senses. The optic nerve has over a million nerve fibers. Ninety percent of all the information we take in from the world we take in visually. With so much of the brain’s cortex devoted to visual processing, it is logical that visual literacy is the key sensory literacy.” 

 

“It’s as important to be visually literate, to understand pictures and how they affect us, as it is to be word-literate,” Kennedy says. “Being fluent in the language of images gives us an advantage at school, at work, and at home.”

 

Photo by RF._.studio from Pexels

But what is visual literacy exactly and what does it have to do with picture books? Or with teaching and valuing art and design for young children?

 

To be visually literate, a person should be able to ‘read’ and think critically about images. If you are visually literate, you should be able to go from passively seeing an image to really LOOKING. This means being able to interpret images meaningfully, by first looking at images, then analysing them, and eventually situating them in terms of their cultural, social and historical context.

 

Images can convey meaning with immediacy in a multiple ways, and have increasingly become an essential tool for generating innovative solutions in business, design, science and technology, among numerous other fields. I previously blogged about using doodling as a tool for my writing and business. Here is another really cool tool: The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods shows just how versatile images can be in a myriad of contexts. 

 

"Towards A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods for Management"
Lengler R., Eppler M. (2007)

Being able to both understand images and convey meaning through them are key skills that future generations of children will need more than ever.

 

As picture book creators, we know just how powerful images are. We know that how words and pictures work together in a picture book creates something that is more than the sum of its parts.

It is ART. 

Art that tells a story. ART that communicates powerful messages and evokes beautiful things:

This powerful image from Small in the City by Sydney Smith shows a little girl looking for her lost cat, small in the city, just like her.  No words are needed to convey the emotion of this scene: the art with its use of colour, composition and fluid lines conveys the message beautifully.

In his book Grand Canyon, Jason Chin paints in masterful realistic detail the majestical rock formations and the tiny creatures that live in the Grand Canyon so that readers everywhere can experience this beautiful place and its history. Chin's impactful artwork compositions, combining macro and the micro views, guide readers in making connections between the elements immediately visible and those observed through taking a closer look.

 

Benedict Blathwayt's stunning watercolours are packed with so much detail for young readers to pore over! In this spread from Green Light for Little Red Train the train speeds through a mountain landscape, but it is all the delightful additional 'mini' stories that invite a closer look.

 

 

In this story about the boy Matisse, inspired by a lifetime surrounded by art in nature and at home, Hadley Hooper instantly creates a visual connection between the boy's world and the grown-up artist's famous (actual) paintings through her evocative, colourful, bold picture book artwork. From the Irridescence of Birds by Patricia McLaughlan and Hadley Hooper

No need for words in this instantly-recognizable scene. Mo Willems' inspired combination of photographs and comic-style illustrations conveys the simple joy of being reunited with a favourite toy. From Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins is a gem with its bold imagery and simplicity, yet clever complexity. Even the youngest of children can spot the joke in the images -- the wily fox is always one step behind the hen in this classic example of how the art speaks volumes.

This illustration from Chris Wormell's One Smart Fish, the story of a clever fish who dreams of walking on land, ends with this amazing image - such a lot of information about the story of evolution is conveyed in just one piece of art!

 

As Picture Book creators, we recognize the importance of including all kinds of art and diverse imagery in picture books so that children everywhere can really see themselves and their world reflected in the pictures they encounter in books.

From Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

 

Tony Ross' vibrant, lively pencil drawings depict Susan experiencing all the emotions and enjoying all the activities every child loves - from painting, to go-karting to playing with Dad. The final image might surprise readers and encourages them to consider their assumptions and empathise with Susan, unique, just like every child. From Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

With beautiful textured paintings, Britta Teckentrup uses simple and bold imagery to pack in a heartfelt and universal message about belonging. From Under the Same Sky by Britta Teckentrup

Todd Parr's distinctive, simple, colourful images speak first, almost before the words - conveying powerful messaging in bold artwork. From The Family Book by Todd Parr

'

Evocative, imaginative and empowering artwork fills this beautiful book, Dreamers by Yuyi Morales, empowering children to find a home in a world of books and dare to dream big.

 

So many different styles of ART with powerful visual messaging!

From an early age, picture books are perfect for scaffolding children in order to extend their innate visual literacy. By encouraging parents and teachers to value the visual art form that is picture books, and engage in conversations that prompt children to really LOOK and think critically about their pictures – even older children – could we be helping to set them up with critical skills for a better future in our digital world?

 

Make way for art!

 

____________________________________________________________________

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of the award-winning The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books, and selected as a best STEM Book 2020. Editor of numerous prize-winning books, she runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission, and is the Editorial Director for Five Quills. She is Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why empathy is a force for social justice - Garry Parsons

Last week my first collaboration with author Simon James Green Llama Glamarama was published. This is a picture book about a llama called Larry who has a secret passion for dancing. The cover is a shiny, sparkly gold and Larry holds a glittering red bowler hat (inspired by Sally Bowles’ hat in the movie Cabaret) and a rainbow feather boa. It's jolly and it's camp!

Add caption

Back in January, the publicity team at Scholastic began firming up plans for bookshop events and some literary festival appearances in anticipation of a June publication date for Llama Glamarama that coincided with UK Pride month. Plans revolved around a theme of celebration, with music and dancing being the focus, something akin to a child-friendly Pride march with a lively, fun carnival vibe.

Simon and I had glittery hats, rainbow scarves and a disco playlist with dance moves that we were planning to share with the kids.

However, not unlike the rest of the world, we hadn't planned for the arrival of a global pandemic, nor had we expected to be the witnesses of such a terrible event in the USA. 

So, with event plans cancelled and bookshops closed, our launch day, like that of many other new publications became entirely virtual,  in an online world reverberating with everyone's reactions to these traumas, expressed with anger, sympathy and everything in between.

The idea of bringing a jolly, camp book with a shiny, sparkly gold cover into a world suffering from unprecedented levels of fear had me feeling a little nervous. My concern was that it could, at best, seem like just a bit of light relief or, at worst, trivial, banal and uncaring.

Undaunted, we prepared a downloadable party pack of things to make, eat and colour along with a jolly Spotify playlist for children to host their own Glamarama carnival party at home. A conscious effort to promote the book through its fun and colourful nature. This is a picture book after all!

But my concerns were missing the point. Larry’s story in Llama Glamarama is not about trying to find diversions from the world’s problems or denying they exist by offering rainbows and glitter as a distraction.  Larry’s story is an exploration of believing in yourself. His journey to get there is not easy and is even a little painful to see at times.  

Llama Glamarama Simon James Green & Garry Parsons - Scholastic

As author and illustrator, our collaborative aim was to elicit empathy for Larry’s plight, inviting the reader to step into his shoes, just for a moment (cowboy boots actually, inspired by a pair worn by Dolly Parton).

Dolly Parton. Camp icon and children's literacy promoter

Over the last decade neuroscientists have discovered that most of us have empathy wired into our brains, debunking the notion that we are solely self-interested creatures.

A Cambridge University study led by Maria Nikolajeva, Professor of Education, found that “reading fiction provides an excellent training for young people in developing and practising empathy and theory of mind, that is, understanding of how other people feel and think”.

Roman Krznaric, author of Empathy: Why It Matters, and How Can I Get It 

“We are homo empathicus”  says writer and cultural thinker Roman Krznaric, founder of The Empathy Library. “There has been an extraordinary shift … a concept that has been buried in psychology textbooks for nearly a century – empathy – is coming to be seen as one of the fundamental forces for tackling global challenges.”

Krznaric goes on to explain that a crucial method of expanding our empathy is by making the imaginative leap into other people’s lives through books and films.

Of course we all knew this already on some level.  We’ve all been moved by words and images we’ve read and by movies we’ve watched that have touched us. But in murky times like these, where the challenges of the world are so apparent, to consider actively developing empathy through reading seems like the best action to take.

Joseph Coelho

Writer Joseph Coelho put it like this:

"Focusing on the young and developing their empathy skills strikes me as the best possible action we can take in these troubling times, equipping the next generation with the tools to help them avoid the storms we find ourselves in, storms that are very much a result of a lack of empathy, an inability to communicate and an unwillingness to understand."

So for the youngest readers it starts with picture books.

Looking through my book shelves at home I’ve picked out a few picture books that I enjoy because they take me on that imaginative leap Roman Krznaric describes.  

As an illustrator I’m drawn to the moment in each of these stories where the character hits the lowest level just before they undergo a realization or an experience that transforms them or their situation for the better, when we as the reader are invited to pause and feel what it’s like to be in their shoes.

Perfectly Norman Tom Percival - Bloomsbury

Me and My Fear Francesca Sanna - Flying Eye Books

The New Neighbours Sarah McIntyre - David Fickling Books

The Lion Inside Rachel Bright & Jim Field  - Orchard

Melrose and Croc Emma Chichester Clark - HarperCollins

Piper Emma Chichester Clark - Andersen Press

Developing empathy helps children understand their own and other people's feelings and becomes the foundation for building good relationships. Empathy is a force for social justice and if there ever was a time when we need it, it’s got to be now.

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For a wealth of information on promoting empathy through reading as a core life skill visit the Empathy Lab website.

www.empathylab.uk

Find out more about Roman Krznaric and the Empathy Library here.

https://empathylibrary.com

Garry Parsons is an illustrator of children’s books. 

LLama Glamarama is written by Simon James Green and published by Scholastic

Garry Parsons @icandrawdinos
http://www.garryparsons.co.uk

Further reading.

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/216/childrens-books/articles/ten-of-the-best/ten-of-the-best-books-to-boost-empathy

https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/may/13/reading-teach-children-empathy