Title: Dead End In Norvelt

Authors: Jack Gantos

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

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School

Summary: Dead End In Norvelt is an autobiographical coming of age story. After getting in an argument with his parents, the young Jack Gantos is "grounded for life" one summer and ends up being given the task of helping the town's elderly medical examiner with her duties, which include writing obituaries. Over the course of the summer, Jack learns invaluable lessons about the importance of hard work, the hard work of relationships, and the rewards inherent in devoting himself to a cause larger than himself.

Ideas / Interventions: This is another book that 'readers' will enjoy. Gantos's sense of humor will appeal to younger teens especially. There are endless themes to pursue; have your client diagram relationships in the book and then diagram relationships in their own lives, or ask them to complete a values ranking activity for one of the characters and compare that to their own values. 

Title: The Reluctant Journal of Henry K Larsen: (Who Is Only Writing This Because His Therapist Said He Had To, Which Stinks)

Authors: Susin Nielsen

Themes: Anxiety, Bullying, Communication Skills, Coping Skills, Depression, Developing Perspective, Developing Empathy, Friendship, Gratitude, Junior High through High School, Self-Esteem, Social Skills, Validation, Grief

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School

Summary: The Reluctant Journal of Henry K Larsen: (Who Is Only Writing This Because His Therapist Said He Had To, Which Stinks) is a remarkable book, though a little bit graphic. Henry's older brother is a victim of relentless, cruel bullying, who snaps one day and takes their dad's hunting rifle to school and kills two students. The story takes place after Henry's family has relocated to a new city where no one knows their past. This book is Henry's therapy journal. It is honest, witty, and sad in turns and poignantly captures the feelings of a vulnerable but resilient boy. 

Title: Okay For Now

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Themes: Communication, Parenting, Developing Empathy, Validation, Self-Esteem, Social Skills, Developing Perspective, Grief, Individuation, Coping Skills, Bullying, Gratitude, DBT, Depression

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School 

Summary: Okay for Now is another beautiful coming of age story by Gary D. Schmidt. The main character, Doug, is an adolescent with all the odds stacked against him. Doug develops courage and compassion as he discovers the art of Audubon, finds solace in a library, and creates deep but unlikely friendships. 

Ideas / Interventions: Like The Wednesday Wars, this is a good book to use with kids who enjoy reading. It is a story that pulls readers in quickly and keeps their attention. Okay For Now is a fun book to use for bibliotherapy. Doug's circumstances align well with the DBT assumption that: "I did not cause all my problems, and I need to deal with them anyway." One of the ways Doug deals with his problems is through his dry sense of humor, which resonates with a lot of adolescents. 

Use this book in conjunction with education about common thinking errors. Have clients choose a character from the book that they would like to track cognitive distortions for. As they learn to notice these negative automatic thoughts expressed by that character in the book, discuss examples from their own lives of times they have employed specific thinking errors. 

Title: The Wednesday Wars

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Themes: Communication, Parenting, Developing Empathy, Validation, Self-Esteem, Social Skills, Developing Perspective, Grief, Individuation, Coping Skills, Bullying, Gratitude

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School 

Summary: The Wednesday Wars is a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader in the late 60's, living in suburban Long Island. Holling is required to spend his Wednesday afternoons at school, alone with his English teacher Mrs. Baker, while all of the other students attend mass or synagogue. Over the course of the school year, Holling not only acquires a love for Shakespeare but also learns important truths about himself, the world beyond his small town, and life in general. 

Ideas / Interventions: This is a good book to use with kids who enjoy reading. It is a compelling story, and an excellent tool for bibliotherapy in the classic sense. Holling is an easy character to relate to, and the struggles he faces are fairly universal in nature. 

With books like this, I like to have clients choose a character and list their strengths, their challenges, and decide how they can use their strengths to moderate challenges. Once they have completed this exercise for a character in the book, clients should complete the same exercise for themselves and process that experience in session. 

Title: The London Eye Mystery

Authors: Siobahn Dowd

Themes: Anxiety, Autism, Blended Families, Coping Skills, Communication, Grief, Developing Perspective, Developing Empathy

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School

Summary: The London Eye Mystery tells the story of Ted, a teenager with mild autism, and his sister, Kat, who solve the mystery of their missing cousin, Salim. Salim is struggling to manage his anxiety about moving to New York with his mom and has complicated grief related to his dad. In addition to providing insight into the challenges of change and blended families, this book does an excellent job of depicting events through the eyes of an autistic child.

Ideas / Interventions: This book is a great bibliotherapy resource for families with children on the autistic spectrum. Focusing on the strengths of Ted's unique perspective creates an opportunity to reframe challenges that other autistic children face as important abilities. I recommend that parents read this book with their autistic child as part of special, dedicated one-on-one time, and come to sessions ready to discuss what they learned and appreciate about each other from the process. 

Title: 365 Day of Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Themes: Developing Perspective, DBT, Friendship, Junior High through High School

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School

365 Days of Wonder contains a precept for every day. Use it as a companion to Wonder or on it's own as a resource to generate discussion about positive attitudes and choosing to walk to the middle path. 

Title: Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Themes: Self-Esteem, Anxiety, Social Skills, Bullying, Individuation, Developing Perspective, Developing Empathy, Validation, DBT, Friendship

Age Recommendation: Junior High through High School

Wonder is a poignant story in it's own right, but has particular value as a bibliotherapy resource for generating discussions about individuation and perspective. Wonder tells the story of August, an intelligent young man with physical disabilities who is enrolling in school for the first time as a junior high student. By inviting readers to view discrete events through the varying perspectives of August, his family members, teachers, and peers, the author reinforces an assertion of DBT, namely, that many truths about any situation can exist at once. 

One of August's teachers challenges his students to develop and follow personal precepts that will guide their decisions and attitudes. If you are using this book in a clinical or educational setting, one fun activity is to help your clients/students author their own precepts. Start with a values clarification exercise (there are many free versions online) and guide your clients/students in connecting the dots between their values and the precepts they author. 

Another useful intervention to use with this book is to have clients choose one character in the book that they relate to and list five strengths and five challenges that the character has; then have your client describe how the character uses their strengths to overcome their challenges. Once they have completed this activity, have your client list five of their own strengths and challenges; then help your client choose one challenge they would like to work on and support them in developing strategies for moderating that challenge by accessing their strengths. Many clients enjoy creating a visual component to go with this exercise, such as a Power Point presentation or even just a simple chart, so they can share their ideas and progress with others. This project is harder than it sounds but is very rewarding for kids, so, if necessary, break the task into smaller portions and spend just part of a series of sessions working on it. 

I can't resist adding my favorite quote from this book: "In the future you make for yourselves, anything is possible. If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God" (p. 301).