Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - There are two large illustrations of the park in the book. In one of them Barbara is sad and in the other she is happy. Can you create two pictures of the same location showing a character’s different emotions and how it affects what they are doing? You could also retell the story from the point of view of one of Barbara’s friends. How did they feel when they saw that Barbara was upset? Like many little people, Barbara doesn't really know what a wobbler is, why it’s looming or how to control it.

Barbara is very familiar. In fact, there is a ‘Barbara’ in my home right now, my nearly 6 year-old daughter.

Nadia Shireen enjoyed making homemade magazines and comics as a child, and during her time studying law at university and her subsequent career in journalism, she started to sketch again. Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award, and went on to win the UKLA Book Award. Nadia’s subsequent books have since been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, The Sainsbury’s Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. The author / illustration has drawn their own interpretation of what a ‘wobbler’ might look like. Can you create pictures of what you think it looks like? The 7-10+ category features no less than four exciting debut authors and for the very first time a graphic novel. When Stars are Scattered written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson with Omar Mohamed, tells the story of Omar and his brother Hassan and topically depicts the harsh reality faced by refugees. When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten , a stunning debut from Pushkin, tells an evocative tale of memory loss, family and friendships. Bloomsbury have two titles on the list. Lesley Parr’s debut novel, The Valley of Lost Secrets, a powerful story of wartime evacuation to Wales, and the Carnegie shortlisted October October by Katya Balen. Knights Of also have two books in this category. Front Desk the debut novel from Kelly Yang which draws on her own experiences of moving from China to America, and the Blue Peter and Waterstones award winning debut from Elle McNicholl, A Kind of Spark. A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature. A perfect empathy-building book, with a joyful ending which brings a lump to the throat. A totally silent little boy is nurtured by empathetic teacher Miss Flotsam who builds his confidence to realise his voice is beautiful, until he finally uses it, very movingly. Every child deserves the chance to have an empathetic adult in their lives, and Miss Flotsam shows how powerfully transformative this can be.

Empathy appears in the new Welsh curriculum 35 times, and EmpathyLab works closely with many schools in Wales. This year we introduced a Read for Empathy Wales collection with 17 books in both Welsh and English. A wonderful picture book called The Quilt is one of these. It the story of a family leaving their Welsh homeland for a better life in America and builds empathetic insight into the trauma of economic migration. They take their family quilt with them, and it reminds them that even in a strange land, they are connected by their love for each other, and the love helps them thrive. The books are a brilliant resource to use as part of Empathy Day on 9 June, and any time afterwards too. This year’s Empathy Day theme is empathy, our human superpower and to help everyone build that power there’s a special challenge with nine very practical, creative activities. You can do these at any time, and on 9 June watch an amazing array of authors and illustrators model the same activities, as part of Empathy Day Live!

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The teachers we work with stress how important it is for children to be able to recognise and name their feelings. If you can’t understand and articulate your own emotions, it’s hard to share and understand someone else’s . Barbara Throws a Wobbler is a brilliant example of how books can help, as it explores the range of emotions involved in feeling angry. Barbara is furious, ready to explode and doesn’t really understand her feelings until she meets her “wobbler” and realises she can take charge of it. Research some phrases / idioms to describe emotions (e.g. on top of the world, hopping mad, feeling blue).

Available in both Welsh and English this superb short novel is set in a dystopian world where The End came in 2018. The electricity went off and the ‘normal’ 21c world disappeared. 14 year old Dylan is surviving, isolated, with his mam above Nebo village in north-west Wales. His emotions are wonderfully, sparsely drawn and we really care about him and his tiny family. A great springboard for discussion of powerful emotions, and the connections between us that make life worth living, whatever.Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments Empathy for earth and all its creatures feels especially important right now. The judges chose Linda Newbery’s powerful non-fiction book to help build understanding and action – as she says “it’s not difficult to realise animals have feelings”. Design a game in which a person has to catch a ‘wobbler’ and un-make it, like Barbara does in the story. Scientific research shows that empathy is learnable and that books are a powerful empathy-building tool. The world so badly needs more empathy, and non-profit EmpathyLab aims to raise an empathy-educated generation, to build a more caring and less divided world.

In the 3-6 age category we have this year’s one and only author to have been a previous winner. Nadia Shireen won with her debut picturebook, Good Little Wolfin 2013 and now appears again with Barbara Throws a Wobbler, an empathetic tale which helps us to reflect on the universal impact of a bad day. Anna Milbourne’s I’m (Almost) Always Kindfollows immediately upon her 2021shortlisting success with I am not (very) afraid of the Darkand similarly successfully relays an important message to young readers. In this case about the necessity to see things from another’s perspective which is a strong theme across this list. In Tom Percival’s haunting tale, The Invisible,he sensitively confronts the issue of being excluded by poverty, while James Catchpole and Karen George’s What Happened to You?gives us the positive viewpoint of a child with a missing limb but no shortage of imagination. Alex Latimer and David Litchfield’s Pip and Eggis a gentlestory of friendship, nature and the circle of life and the final book in this group is the inspiring Freedom we Singby Amyra and Molly Mendoza, published by Flying Eye, which poetically explores what freedom really means and looks like. Yet, rather than just Barbara being cross, an actual red, jelly-like cloud emerges above Barbara’s head and stays there, forbidding any hugs or friendly attempts at talking. The Wobbler threatens to take over Barbara altogether, until she talks to it and realises she’s in control after all. With a little bit of effort, can Barbara make the Wobbler disappear? Rewrite the story (or part of it) in the form or a play script. Could you perform this to an audience?Why does the story end with a question? What does it make you think? Could you use this technique in your own stories? Draw some illustrations of the same character showing different emotions. How does their face change? How does their body language change? Co- sponsor Reading Cloud are “ really delighted to support these worthwhile and unique children’s book awards as co-sponsors again this year. We are always heartened to see so many dedicated teacher judges all over the UK working with the longlisted, shortlisted and winning books to inspire a love of reading in their pupil groups and beyond. Encouraging reading for enjoyment and improving literacy are very much at the heart of Reading Cloud and through our platform, pupils can review and recommend books, sharing their enthusiasm for reading through a variety of accessible and engaging tools and features.” Picture books that can bring tears to the eyes even after repeated reads are few and far between. John Burningham mastered the skill with Granpa, as did Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb with The Paper Dolls. But it’s particularly impressive that debut author Lauren Ace and illustrator Jenny Løvlie achieved the feat while fresh to the game with The Girls, about four schoolgirls whose friendship and lives blossom under an old apple tree. The tale won the illustrated book category of the 2019 Waterstones children’s book prize, and the pair have since received messages from readers worldwide thanking them for reflecting their own friendships and inspiring the next generation. One of the criteria the judges use in choosing books for the collection focuses on titles which can help combat tribal thinking, and prejudice. Front Desk brings new perspectives on racism and injustice, and is an inspiring and very accessible read. The main character is Mia whose hard-pressed immigrant family are running a motel for a greedy, discriminatory owner – she ends up on the front desk. Her parents’ compassion and sense of community leads them to hiding other immigrants in empty rooms…and everything starts to go wrong until Mia cuts through to a solution. Another activist character, determined to make the world a better place.