Book Nook - Bibliotherapy Resource: June 2015

Friday, June 26, 2015

Title: How To Train A Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness

Author: Jan Chozen Bays

Themes: Anxiety, Developing Perspective, Mindfulness

Age Recommendation: Adult Reference

Title: Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge

Author: Mem Fox

Themes: Anxiety, Communication, Developing Empathy, Developing Perspective, Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Humor, Individuation, Self-Esteem, Social Skills

Age Recommendation: Elementary through Junior High School

Summary: Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge is the story of Wilfrid and his friends at the old persons home next door. Wlifrid's favorite friend there is Miss Nancy, who has "lost her memory." Wilfrid doesn't know what a memory is, but in discovering the meaning of the word, he helps Miss Nancy recover some of hers. This is a sweet story of friendship, creativity, and generativity.

Ideas / Interventions: This is a great story to use with kids who are developing social skills and learning to enjoy reciprocal friendships. Before reading the story together, review basic social skills like making eye contact, asking questions about what others are interested in, not interrupting others, etc. Then, as you read the story, point out the social skills demonstrated by Wilfrid and Nancy.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

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.

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 is organized by themes and age group recommendations. I have also included a number of reference books for clinicians and parents. Reference entries will not contain summary or intervention sections. Please comment, share your own insights, and make recommendations for more resources as frequently as possible!