Healing Stories: Picture Books for the Big and Small Changes in a Child's Life
Believing in the power of stories to help children understand themselves, Golding has compiled an annotated list of more than 500 picture books on topics ranging from simple friendship to more complex themes of illness and divorce. In her introduction, she gives practical tips for adults who will be choosing books from this collection. The author reminds them that books alone can't solve all problems, but that they are excellent tools for starting a conversation. Carolyn W. Lima and John A. Lima'sA to Zoo(2005) groups titles by similar topic without the benefit of annotations, whereas John T. Gillespie and Catherine Barr'sBest Books for Children(2003, both Libraries Unlimited) provides a one-sentence annotation with evaluative comments for using the titles as discussion starters with children. Both parents and librarians can use these suggested books either for bibliotherapy or for theme-building for storytimes. However, because Golding suggests many older, out-of-print titles, this book would not be as worthwhile as a collection-development guide.—Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.