Therapeutic Children’s Book Options:

Abuse

● I said No? A Kid-to-Kid Guide to Keeping Private Parts Private by Zach and Kimberly King

○ Ages 4-8

○ Helps: understand boundaries, uses “red flag” and “green flag” language

Anger:

• Anh’s Anger 

• Ages: 4-7 years
• Helps: Personifies and identifies feelings of anger and works on calming skills.

• When Miles Got Mad

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Helps: Similar to above, Identifying and labeling feelings to help move forward in coping skills

• When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really, Angry…

• Ages: 3-6 years
• Helps: Children identify positive coping mechanisms

• A Little Spot of Anger 

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Children calm down when they feel angry

• Hot Stuff to Help Kids Chill Out, The Anger Management Book by Jerry Wilde, PhD

• Ages: 11+ years
• Helps: Shows how to recognize feelings of anger, discusses how angry feelings are created, and suggests ways to calm down and deal with the emotion.

• What to do When your Temper Flares by Dawn Huebner

• Ages: 6-12 years
• Helps: Engaging examples, lively illustrations, and step-by-step instructions teach children a set of "anger dousing" methods aimed at cooling angry thoughts and controlling angry actions, resulting in calmer, more effective kids. A complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to work toward change.

Anxiety:

• Don’t Feed the WorryBug by Andi Green

• Ages: 3-8
• Helps: describes anxiety and how it can grow, teaches how to take charge of anxiety

• Hector’s Favorite Place by Jo Rooks

• Ages: 4-8
• Helps: illustrates how worry can impact daily life function and how to change this “little by little”

• A Feel Better Book for Little Worriers by Holly Brochmann

• Ages: 3-6
• Helps: Identify a worry and where it might come from, as well as provides them with helpful tools to reduce and cope with worries.

• What to do When You Worry too Much by Dawn Huebner

• Ages: 6-10
• Helps: “Cognitive behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of anxiety. A resource for educating, motivating and empowering kids to overcome their overgrown worries”

• Puppy Mind by Andrew Jordan

• Ages: 4-7
• Helps: Children identify when they’re getting anxious, out of focus or dysregulated and teaches them skills they can use to center themselves anywhere

• Let’s Talk About Needing Attention by Joy Berry

• Ages: 3-6
• Helps: Identify when and why children might have disruptive or inappropriate behaviors around getting attention and how they can identify why they want the attention in the specific moment and address better ways of receiving it. 

• Bubblegum Brain by Julia Cook

• Ages: 4-8 years  
• Helps: Actively involves young people in fun, memorable stories and teaches them to become lifelong problem solvers.

• The Usborne: Unworry Book by Alice James

• Ages: 5-9 years
• Helps: Provide children with things to calm them  down and places to put their worries on paper. It is a book full of mindfulness activities

• Transforming Anxiety-Grow Resilience and Confidence by Lauren Mosback, LPC and Chiara Savarese

• Ages: 5-11 years
• Helps: Engage children to learn about self-awareness, skills for coping with anxiety, and resilience & confidence.

• Outsmarting Worry by Dawn Huebner

• Ages: 9-13 years
• Helps: Both children and parents whose worries can get the best of them. This book unmasks worry and shows kids how to manage worry throughout their day.

• Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Raise awareness of differences and promotes acceptance

• Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and kids by Reid Wilson & Lynn Lyons

• Ages: 10-14 years
• Helps: Explain what anxiety is and teach individuals how to live life with anxiety and stop avoiding it.

• Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival

• Ages: 3-6 years
• Helps: Children with anxiety. It helps children understand that worries can be normal, other people have them too, but they can also get out of hand if you don't deal with them properly.

• The Owl Who Was Afraid of The Dark by Jill Tomlinson

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Children overcome their fear/anxiety of the dark

ADHD:

• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Children understand and regulate their urges to interrupt others.

• Puppy Mind by Andrew Jordan

• Ages: 4-7 years
• Helps: Children identify when they’re getting anxious, out of focus or dysregulated and teaches them skills they can use to center themselves anywhere.  

• Wiggles, Stomps and Squeezes Calm my Jitters Down by Lindsey Rowe Parker

• Ages 4-6 years
• Helps: This is a story about sensory differences and how some children experience their world, told from a child's perspective. This book is for anyone who has ever felt the need for a wiggle, stomp, or squeeze!

• Mrs. Gorski, I think I have the Wiggle Fidgets by Barbara Esham

• Ages: 4-7 years
• Helps: A student's positive journey through a learning difference that offers an encouraging example of triumph over difficulty.

• A Dragon with ADHD by Steve Herman

• Ages: 5-8 years
• Helps: Children, parents, and teachers teach kids about ADHD and how to get organized, focus and succeed in life.

• Thriving with ADHD Workbook for Teens by Allison Tyler

• Ages: 12-17 years
• Helps: Give teens the tools to understand how ADHD works within their body, and actionable ways that they can use it to their advantage.

Autism:

• A Boy Called Bat by Elana Arnold

• Ages: 6-10 years
• Helps: Describes day-to-day experience of high-functioning children with ASD

• A whole New Ballgame: A Rip and Read Book by Phil Bildner

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Per Child Mind Institute-not a book that is obviously about autism.

• Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence by Luke Jackson

• Ages: 13+ years
• Helps: Parents of children with ASD and children/teens with ASD. Autoethnography: written by a 13 year-old with ASD talks about life and experience.

• Superflex by Stephanie Madrigal

• Ages: 8-11+ years
• Helps: Teach children about social thinking, social regulation, and social problem solving through a playing a game.

Bullying/Friendship:

• Am I a Bully by Hope Gilchrist

• Ages: 6-9 years
• Helps: distinguish between teasing and bullying

• Tease Monster:  A Book About Teasing vs Bullying by Julia Cook

• Ages: 5-10 years
• Helps: distinguish between teasing and bullying and teach strategies for responding to both good-natured teasing and bullying.

• Warp Speed by Lisa Yee

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Discusses bullying, relatable story for kids who feel like outsider

Bystander by James Preller (Ages 10 and up)

• Real Friends by Shannon Hale

• Ages: 8+ years
• Helps: describe changes in friendship, bullying, childhood anxiety

• Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

• Ages: 5-8 years
• Helps: Teach how small acts of kindness can help children feel included and allow them to flourish

• Real Friends by Shannon HAle and LeUyen Pham

• Ages: 8+ years
• Helps: A series that educates about how hard it is to find your real friends and why it’s worth the journey.

Consent/Body Autonomy:

• Consent (for kids) by Rachel Brian

• Ages: 5-10 years
• Helps: Educate about consent and holding/respecting boundaries, through a comic style book.

• I said No? A Kid-to-Kid Guide to Keeping Private Parts Private by Zach and Kimberly King

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: understand boundaries, uses “red flag” and “green flag” language

• Don’t Hug Doug by Carrie Finison

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Spark discussions about bodily autonomy and consent with young kids

Divorce:

• What can I do? A book for children of divorce by Dawn Lawry

• Ages: 8 - 12 years
• Helps: Give insight and understanding to children trying to cope with family marital issues.

• My parents are divorced too by Melanie Ford

• Ages: 8-14 years
• Helps: Deals with tough issues, and addresses questions that are uppermost in the minds of children whose parents are divorced or divorcing.

• Was it the chocolate pudding? A story for little kids about divorce by Sandra Levins

• Ages: 2 - 6 years
• Helps: Teach about divorce, and receive age-appropriate explanations of what is happening regarding such issues as single-parent homes and joint custody.

• It's Not Your Fault, Koko Bear by Vicki Lansky

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Children identify the emotions and experiences associated with divorce.
•            Parents advice on ways to explain these emotions to children

• Dinosaurs Divorce by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Young children and their families deal with the confusion, misconceptions, and anxieties that are apt to arise when divorce occurs.

Dyslexia:

• Back to Front and Upside Down by Claire Alexander

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Explains dyslexia and models how to ask for help

• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Explains dyslexia, models how to ask for help and captures how can impact self-esteem

Feelings:

• In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek

• Ages: 3-6 years
• Helps: Describes each emotion

• After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Book about overcoming fears, how does Humpty Dumpty get back up again?

• I’m Happy-Sad Today, by Lory Britain Ph.D.

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Book to help explore feelings for children

• The Color Monster

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Children identify and describe feelings

• Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Teach children how to deal with and approach “big” emotions

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

• Ages: 3-6 years
• Helps: Kids especially during times of separation, whether starting school, entering daycare, or going to camp.

• Sense of Self - Coping Skills for Kids Workbook: Stress Managemnant Tools for Anxiety, Anger, Emotional Distress by Sally Safadi

• Ages: 6-12 years
• Helps: Children lower anxiety and stress levels through a variety of activities and worksheets.

• The Boy with Big, Big Feelings (The Big, Big Series, 1) by Britney Winn Lee

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Children who are navigating feelings and coping with an array of emotions.

• The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Foster creativity and uniqueness in children

Grief and Loss:

• I Miss You: A First Look at Death by Pat Thomas

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Explain why people die and how hard it can be to say goodbye

• One Wave at a Time: A Story About Grief and Healing by Holly Thompson

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Show change from struggling to recovery and places an emphasis using support networks

• The Rabbit Listened by Holly Thompson

• Ages: 3-5 years
• Helps: Describe feelings around loss, does not describe death

• The Invisible String by Patrice Karst 

• Ages: 3+ years
• Helps: A child feel connected to a loved one who cannot physically be with them.

• The Memory Box: A Book About Grief by Joanna Rowland

• Ages: 6-10 years
• Helps: Any adult helping a child cope with the loss of a loved one and working through grief.

• Lifetimes: The beautiful way to explain death to children by Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Helps: Family explain life and death in a sensitive, caring, beautiful way.

Identity/Self-Esteem:

• Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall

• Ages: 5-10 years
• Helps: Describe labeling in social settings

• It Feels Good to be Yourself, by Theresa Thorn

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Picture book for children about non-binary gender identities

• Julian is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Short, subtle but lovely and sweet picture book about a child who is non-gender conforming.

• The Day You Begin, by Jacqueline Woodson

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Picture book about diversity and difference

• A House for Everyone by Jo Hirst
• What I Like About Me! by Allia Zobel Nolan

• Ages: 3-7 years
• Helps: Describe diversity and differences

• Ricky the Rock that Couldn’t Roll by Mr.Jay

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Helps: Describe differences, compassion and supporting those with differences.

• Why Am I Different by Norma Simon

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Portrays everyday situations in which children see themselves as "different" in family life, preferences, and aptitudes, and yet, feel that being different is all right.

Mindfulness:

• Breath Like a Bear-30 Mindfulness Techniques for Kids by Kira Willey

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Helps: Explain simple mindfulness techniques to children

• Who is Making a Mess by Maria D’Haene

• Ages: 3 years and younger
• Helps: Normailze the messiness of life. The book has sparse text and family scenes from a diverse group of people break expected stereotypes and celebrate the messiness of life.

• Breathe Like a Bear by Kira Willey

• Ages: 4-10 years
• Helps: 30 breathing and mindfulness techniques for managing bodies, breath, and emotions.  

OCD:

• Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz

• Ages: 9-14 years
• Helps: Describe OCD tendencies and how support could be provided.

• Mr. Worry: A Story About OCD by Holly L. Niner

• Ages: 7-12 years
• Helps: Describe OCD tendencies and how support could be provided.

Parenting:

• Parenting the Strong-Willed Child by Rex Forehand and Nicholas Long

• Helps: Guide parents who are struggling with their childrens behavioral tendencies.

Parent with Depression:

• Why Are You So Sad? by Beth Andrews

• Ages: 3-8 years
• Helps: Children understand their parent’s depression in an age appropriate manner. It reassures that the child is still loved and depression isn’t their fault. It also goes over and explains some of the symptoms that they might be able to see like loss of appetite or sleep.

• Mommy’s Going to the Hospital by Josie Leon and Elizabeth Parkes  

• Ages: 2-5 years
• Helps: Children understand why their parent might be away from home and in a hospital for any chronic illness.

• Worried (Dealing with Feelings…) by Isabel Thomas and Clare Elsom

• Ages: 5-6 years
• Helps: Children who are worried about their parent’s chronic illness or mental health and how to identify and be with those feelings surrounding the situation.

Puberty/Development:

• Celebrate your Body by Sonya Taylor

• Ages:  8-11 years
• Helps: Body positive, empowering book for girls that informs about puberty, emotions and relationships

• American Girl Doll - The Care and Keeping of You (1 and 2) by Valorie Schaefer and Josee Masse

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Educate teens about their changing body, from hair care to healthy eating, bad breath to bras, periods to pimples, and everything in between.

• It’s Perfectly Normal Series by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

• Ages: 9-12 years
• Helps: Discuss sex, sexuality, bodies, and puberty for new generations

• The Body Book for Boys by Cara Natterson and Micah Player

• Ages: 9-12 years
• Helps: provide boys going through puberty with the answers that will help them take care of themselves, from hair care to healthy eating, bad breath to shaving, acne to voice changes, and everything in between.  

• What’s going on down there? by Karen Gravelle and Robert Leighton

• Ages: 9-12 years
• Helps: Empower adolescent boys with honest answers to all of their questions about what's really going on down there.

Responsibility:

• But It’s Not My Fault by Julia Cook

• Ages: 5-8 years
• Helps: Children learn how to accept responsibility for their own behavior

• What Would You Do? A kid’s guide to Tricky and Sticky Situations by linda schwartz

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Give advice on what should be done in confusing, ambiguous, dangerous, or unexpected situations at home, school, or out on your own.

Selective Mutism:

• Lola’s Words Disappeared by Elaheh Bos

• Ages: 5-8 year
• Helps: Describe how kids can be verbal at home but not in public

Sensory Processing:

• Stanley Will Probably Be Fine by Sally J. Pla

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Explain how sensory sensitivities and anxiety can impact daily life function

Sleep:

• What To Do When you Dread Your Bed by Dawn Huebner

• Ages: 6-12 years
• Helps: Guide children and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques used to treat problems with sleep.

• Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Normalize bedtime challenges for parents and children.

Tourette’s Syndrome:

• Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry

• Ages: 8-12 years
• Helps: Explain tourette’s syndrome and how it can impact self esteem

• Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

• Ages: 12+ years
• Helps: Give insight into living with disability, discusses syndrome and types of treatments

• Insignificant Events in The Life of A Cactus by Dusti Bowling

Trauma/Neglect:

• A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret M. Holmes

• Ages: 5-9 Year
• Helps: Discuss trauma and the importance of talking about traumatic things

• Somebody Cares: A Guide for Kids Who Have Experienced Neglect by Susan Farber Straus. PhD

• Ages: 6-12 years
• Helps: Explain how neglect can feel and describes how social worker and therapist may intervene

• You Weren’t With Me by Chandra Ghosh Ippen

• Ages: 3-12 years
• Helps: Parents and children talk about difficult separations to help them reconnect and how they can find their way back to each other.

Other:

• Saturday at the Food Pantry by Diane O’Neill

• Ages: 4-7 years
• Helps: Talk about and normalize the discussion of food insecurity

• Someone Special Just Like You by Tricia Brown

• Ages: 7-12 years
• Helps: Talk about individual differences and normalize being yourself

• Animal Dads by Sneed B. Collard III

• Ages: 4-8 years
• Helps: Talk about the role dads play in raising kids

• Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

• Ages: 5-7 years
• Helps: Children practice the alphabet and to introduce young children to kindergarten.

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