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. 

Title: Because of Winn Dixie

Author: Kate DiCamillo

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

Age Recommendation: Elementary though Junior High School

Summary: Because of Winn-Dixie is a sweet story about a girl and her dog. She feels like a stray kid when she rescues this stray dog, who becomes the catalyst for change in her life. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal is able to create new friendships, strengthen her relationship with her dad, and begin to make peace with her mom. 

Ideas / Interventions: This is a great book to read in small portions during sessions or groups. Have kids draw pictures of their family, friends, and other important people in their life and discuss the hard and easy things about those relationships. Ask them to make a list of qualities they look for in a friend and see which of those qualities they see in characters in the book. Then have them make a list of their own qualities and talk about how to strengthen them. 

Another idea is to have your client read the book outside of sessions and choose one character they feel they can relate to. Ask them to make a list of the character's strengths and challenges, and then guide them through the process of deconstructing the challenges to determine how to moderate them with their strengths. After they have done this for the character in the book, help them do a similar exercise related to their own personal strengths and challenges. 

Title: So Few Of Me

Authors: Peter H. Reynolds

Themes: Anxiety, Coping Skills, Developing Perspective, Humor, Individuation, Mindfulness, Parenting, Self-Esteem

Age Recommendation: Elementary through Junior High School

Summary: So Few Of Me tells the story of Leo, a busy, overscheduled kid. Leo starts keeping lists of all he needs to do and eventually finds that he needs more than just himself to keep up with his to-do's. Before we know it, there are lots of Leo's, each of whom is inundated with too long to-do lists. The real Leo becomes overwhelmed just trying to manage his clones and learns that the secret to happiness is simplicity.

Ideas / Interventions: This is a cute book to read with kids and/or parents with anxious temperaments and perfectionistic tendencies. Point out that Leo isn't someone who starts lots of things and just doesn't get around to finishing them, like a child with ADHD might be, but instead he likes to take on too much and wants to see everything through to completion. If you are working with older children who have developed performance-related anxiety related to pressure they perceive from their parents, try to engage them in a discussion about how Leo' self-esteem became too wrapped up in his external accomplishments with their parents in the session. 

Title: What Are You So Grumpy About?

Authors: Tom Lichtenheld

Themes: Anxiety, Communication, Coping Skills, Depression, Developing Perspective, Gratitude, Parenting, Self-Esteem, Social Skills, Humor

Age Recommendation:  Elementary through Junior High School

Summary: What Are You So Grumpy About? is essentially a list of common kid complaints, accompanied by illustrations that highlight the difficulties they perceive in their circumstances. When you read this with children, plan to spend quite a bit of time examining the illustrations together; they are the key to having fun with this book! The author's humor is spot on for gently introducing the concepts of cognitive distortions, thinking errors, and negative automatic thoughts.

Ideas / Ideation: This is a great book to use with clients who suffer from anxiety or depression and present with symptoms of irritability. Helping children and their parents understand that when a kid is being "grumpy" there is typically an underlying cause that needs to be addressed is important; doing so helps parents develop perspective into the nature of their child's (oftentimes difficult) behaviors, and supports children as they develop self-awareness and learn communication skills to appropriately express their feelings.

As mentioned above, this is also a book that could be used when introducing the concept of cognitive distortions and helping clients develop skills to challenge negative automatic thoughts. Read this together in a session and ask your client to identify the name of the thinking error used on each page, and then help them create an alternative realistic yet positive response to the events depicted. 

Title: Hound Dog True

Authors: Linda Urban

Themes: Anxiety, Blended Families, Bullying, Communication, Coping Skills, Depression, Developing Perspective, Developing Empathy, Friendship, Gratitude, Self Esteem, Social Skills, Validation

Age Recommendation:  Elementary through Junior High School

Summary: Hound Dog True is the story of Mattie, a little girl with a sensitive temperament and clinical levels of anxiety who changes schools frequently; the story opens as Mattie starts at yet another new school, dreading what she assumes will be another awful year. Mattie has been the victim of bullying in the past, which reinforces her natural tendency to isolate herself from her peers. Mattie is an avid writer and the book is essentially her journal. There are some painful, yet realistic, depictions of bullying and it's effects on self esteem in this book, but overall it is a sweet, hopeful story.

Ideas / Interventions:  Read this story with clients who struggle with self esteem, have been the victims of bullying, are dealing with adjustment issues, or who spend much of their energy each day just managing their anxiety. Because this is written as a personal narrative, cognitive distortions are expressed regularly. Have your client or child identify these negative automatic thoughts and suggest replacement thoughts for Mattie. 

Title: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

Authors: Jack Gantos

Themes: ADHD, Anxiety, Bullying, Communication, Coping Skills, Developing Empathy, Developing Perspective, Friendship, Gratitude, Individuation, Parenting, Self-Esteem, Social Skills

Age Recommendation: Elementary through Junior High School 

Summary: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is the story of a boy being treated for ADHD and mood swings. Joey is a character that most kids with mood disorder and/or ADHD diagnoses will relate to. Joey takes medication for his ADHD, which he refers to as "dud meds" because he doesn't believe they help him manage his impulsive behaviors at all. Joey has a good relationship with his mom but struggles in school; this is the first book in the Joey Pigza series and I recommend all of them.  

Ideas / Interventions: As an intervention, either read portions of this book with your client during therapy sessions, or assign your client to read a section with a parent between visits. Often, kids who struggle with severe ADHD don't enjoy reading, so it's okay to move very slowly through this book. As your client develops skills for managing their impulses, have them problem solve for Joey. Ask you client to make suggestions for what Joey could have done differently in situations that lead to trouble. 

Title: Half Magic

Author: Edward Eager

Themes: Autism, Blended Families, Communication, Coping Skills, Developing Perspective, Humor, Friendship, Individuation, Social Skills

Age Recommendation: Elementary through Junior High School

Summary: Half Magic is a fun read! The story follows Jane, Mark and Katharine through their adventures with a magic coin, that grants half-wishes. As the siblings figure out how to use the coin, they also figure out a lot of life lessons related to families, friendship, and themselves. 

Ideas / Interventions: This is a great book to read with kids who are very concrete and literal, which is why I included it in the "autism" category. There is an excellent audio book version of this story that you could use if you are working with kids who have limited attention span or who struggle with the language usage in the book, which is a little old fashioned for some. Half Magic has an Amelia Bedelia feel to it; when the kids wish on their coin, they literally get half of what they are asking for, which can take some hilarious turns. These moments in the book are a great time to pause and discuss the difference between literal and figurative meanings. Try to engage kids who are especially concrete thinkers in activities focused on broadening their ability to express themselves in more nuanced ways. One example is to help them create a matching game for phrases and their meanings; another is to have them illustrate a phrase in two ways - the first if it were taken literally and the second if it were taken figuratively. Learning to understand non-literal meanings is an important social skill as kids get older and communication becomes more complex. 

Title: Some Kid's Just Can't Sit Still

Author: Sam Goldstein, Ph.D. 

Themes: ADHD, Developing Empathy, Parenting, Social Skills

Age Recommendation: Elementary through junior high school

Some Kids Just Can't Sit Still outlines and illustrates many behaviors that are typically exhibited by children with ADHD but adds an important element that other children's books on this subject often leave out: namely, how the child with ADHD feels about their struggles. 

By presenting information about ADHD in this way, the author manages to separate the child from their diagnosis, which is essential in helping strengthen and preserve their self-esteem and develop their sense of self-efficacy. In addition, this book is an excellent tool for helping those who live, play, or work with children who have ADHD develop empathy for them and understand the difference between deviant and distracted behaviors.