Great books to support Children's Mental Health

Children’s Mental Health week runs from 6th-13th February 2023 and this year the theme is  “Let’s Connect” with a focus on making meaningful connections to support mental health. (Source: https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/) 

At Summersdale we are passionate about supporting children’s mental health and over the past few  years we have built a dedicated list of titles for children aged 4–16 years to help support emotional  development and boost feelings of self-worth and confidence.  

The backbone to our list is the “Monster Mental Health” series for children aged 7 and over which  includes Amazon bestsellers You’re a Star and Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Poppy O’Neill. These fun  and engaging activity books combine proven cognitive behavioural therapy with mindfulness methods  used by child psychologists to help children explore their emotions and understand how they make their  mind and body feel. Other standout titles include the Workbooks, with topics on worry, happiness,  confidence and finding calm, and the new Be the Change series by the late Marcus Sedgwick.  

We also have a range of affirmation cards designed to help children feel empowered, a series for teens  on mental health topics, and some brilliant standalone titles, including A Girl’s Guide to Being  Awesome by Suzanne Virdee, In My Head by Louise Baty, and Let’s Talk by Adam Carpenter which  is aimed at boys aged 11+. We are also growing our offering of guided journals for children with  accompanying titles for the Monster Mental Health series, as well as fun activity journals This is Me!  and All About Me.  

 Forthcoming titles include two new additions to the Monster Mental Health series: I Like Being Me - A Child's  Guide to Self-Worth and When I Feel Angry - A Child's Guide to Understanding and Managing Moods both  publishing March 9th. For younger children aged 4-7 we have a vibrant new “Monster Activity” series  covering topics such as anger, worry, calm and happiness. The first two titles in this series are Angry  Monsters and Happy Monsters, also publishing 9th March.