A Booklist for Now…

‘ We don’t heal in isolation, but in community’ – S. Kelley Harrell, Gift of the Dreamtime – Reader’s Companion

In a time that has been both sorrowful and numbing, anxious and unpredictable, drawing together through stories has been an anchor and support for us. The selections listed here are recommendations by the Bookworm team, based on books that we have felt connected to during this period of time.

When Sadness is At Your Door

Author: Eva Eland
Illustrator: Eva Eland
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Language: English
Recommended Age Group: 3+ years

A simple narrative about a visitor named Sadness and how a young child interacts with this visitor. The story makes one of the more feared and judged feelings, something that is accessible and acceptable.
The personification of Sadness enables an exploration of the young child’s changing relationship with this feeling, in a way that is comforting and relatable.
When Sadness is at your Door makes us feel less alienated even as we dwell within a bubble of sadness.
“Sometimes Sadness arrives unexpectedly”

Ruby’s Worry

Author and Illustrator: Tom Percival
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Language: English
Recommended Age Group: 7 – 10 years

Ruby’s worry is the story of not just one girl named Ruby but it is the story of many children and many adults. It is themed on ‘worry’ which is often not discussed. The story helps us understand that worries are normal, and that it is important to accept and talk about them. The worry itself is represented in a way that is understandable and relatable, and the story gently takes us on Ruby’s journey as she faces this worry. The story empathizes with every individual facing a worry, and reassures that we are not alone in this. “Ruby realized that she wasn’t the only person with a Worry after all. Other people had them too!”

Panchi Pyaara

Author: Kristien Aertssen
Translation: Arundhati Deosthale with Maggy Jacqmin
Publisher: A&A Book Trust
Language: Hindi and Flemish
Age Group – 7- 10 years

Panchi Pyaara is a poignant story of a family depicting their love for birds and for each other. Bulbul loved to feed the birds with her grandparents. Her grandfather would call her grandmother ‘panchi pyaara’ and would tell Bulbul everything about birds. The story talks about the heartbreak of losing a loved one and how the family copes with it. It interestingly shows how birds help the grandfather relieve his sadness.

The Red Tree

Author: Shaun Tan
Illustrator: Shaun Tan
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books
Language: English
Recommended Age Group: 7 + years

The story begins with a young child waking up in her room, with the words ‘sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to’. A few leaves floating around turn into a flood that she struggles to get through, as she tries to move out of her room.
Shaun Tan’s incredible illustrations are both magically realistic, and also honest and precise in the emotions that they convey through the story.
The Red Tree is a story about loneliness that can envelope anyone, and that hope lies within and around us, and we only need to recognize and seek it.
“Suddenly there it is right in front of you, bright and vivid, quietly waiting.”

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

Author: Maya Angelou
Illustrator: Jean-Michel Basquiat
Editor: Sara Jane Boyers
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Language: English
Recommended Age Group: 8+ years

Maya Angelou’s powerful words are paired with Basquiat’s striking bold artwork in a way that draws us into the power of this narrative. It has both an awareness of the dangers and worries lurking around every corner of this world, and a determination to not give in to these fears but to face them with strength and commitment. The book compels us to reach within, and find our own resistance to these times that we face together.
“I can walk the ocean floor and never have to breathe. Life doesn’t frighten me at all”

Birdsong

Author: Julie Flett
Illustrator: Julie Flett
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Language: English
Recommended Age Group: 8+ years

Not all changes are welcomed and so begins and ends a story of change and hope written with a special lyrical quality and illustrated in gentle pastel shades to remind us of what can bring comfort when we are the most distressed.
The writer Julie Flett, a Cree-Metis, honors her culture beautifully in this book as it opens a window to us, to the cycles of the seasons and the warmth of friendships across generations. It is a tender story with precise language and vivid details.
“When we’re done, Agnes says it’s like a poem for her heart. Then I sit with Agnes and talk about making things: mucky things and things with string and song and paper and words. And then we sit quietly together, on Agnes’s bed, until it’s time to say goodbye.”