Title: Walter Wick's Optical Tricks

Author: Walter Wick

Themes: Communication, Developing Perspective, Validation, DBT

Age Recommendation: Elementary through high school

Walter Wick's Optical Tricks teaches perspective with photographs of optical puzzles and their solutions. It is helpful as a tool to introduce the concept that there can be many truths about any given situation, which leads well into a DBT discussion about middle path and wise mind. It is also useful in helping children develop an awareness that things/circumstances may not always be as they first appear. 

A simple intervention I use with this book is to take turns describing what we are seeing on the pages; the pictures of the puzzles are very different than the pictures of their solutions, even though they contain the same objects arranged in the same way. Have your child or client describe one of the two photographs and you describe the other, then switch photographs. This is an engaging way to introduce communication tools such as validation and "I feel" statements. This activity can also be used with parents and children as a way to practice communication skills and reinforce the validity of varying perspectives. 

Title: Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons

Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Themes: Self-Esteem, Social Skills, Developing Empathy, Friendship

Age Recommendation: Pre-K through high school

Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons introduces basic social skills and defines positive attributes through scenarios that center around cookies!  Reading it with children provides opportunity for discussion about important qualities such as patience, kindness, and respect. 

I like to use this book with adolescents especially (prefaced with a statement along the lines of: "I know this might be too little-kid for you, but I think we should read it anyway because it has great illustrations and it really does have some good information in here..."). One approach is to ask them to identify an instance from their own life that illustrates what is going on with the characters in the book. It is helpful to take turns sharing examples so that kids don't feel singled out, though, as a clinician, I try to use figures from popular media as examples so that I don't share information from my personal life. This book seems to create a space in which adolescents can just let their guard down and develop some real insight. If you have the time and facilities (maybe on an inpatient unit, or if you are doing this at home with your own kids) it is fun to actually make cookies and encourage/guide kids to come up with their own "recipe for success" to apply to a current struggle they are facing. 

Title: The OK Book

Authors: Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Themes: Self-Esteem, Anxiety

Age Recommendation: Pre-K through highschool

The OK Book is the story of the OK guy/girl and the enjoyment and satisfaction they find in exploring their world and developing talents. Rotate OK counterclockwise and it looks like a stick figure! 

This book is a great resource for kids of any age who are struggling with performance-related anxiety, deep-seated fear of failure, or feelings of low-self worth. When reading this book with a child or teen, have them point out the ways that the OK guy/girl is willing to celebrate their strengths and feel optimistic about their imperfections. 

BIBLIO: BOOK

THERAPY: HEALING


Bibliotherapy is a technique that can be employed to help navigate life's challenges at any age, but is an especially helpful tool when working with children and young adults.

This blog is dedicated to sharing bibliotherapy resources with families, clinicians and the community at large. My dream is that it can be a space where we can collaborate as we continue to build our own libraries and subsequently enrich our lives!

Simply put, bibliotherapy introduces important, and oftentimes difficult themes from a safe distance. As we engage in the process of understanding a problem and discovering solutions through the lens of a book, we develop the ability to then generalize those same solution-oriented skills to our own struggles.

Reading develops emotional and mental strength that other modalities of sharing ideas and information cannot replicate. For example, watching a movie made from a book is a different experience than reading the book itself. When we watch a movie we surrender our own creative interpretation of the story to that of the filmmaker; we are removed from the potential of creating an otherwise deep and personal relationship with characters and events that are depicted with written words and animated by our own imagination.

This blog will be organized by themes, age group recommendations, and alphabetically. Please comment, share your own insights, and make recommendations for more resources as frequently as possible!