Healing Days: A Guide for Kids Who Have Experienced Trauma

Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award: Mind, Body, and Spirit

A reassuring picture book that helps children understand their feelings after trauma and reminds them that healing and brighter days are ahead

Something bad and scary happened, and everything feels different now. Big feelings, confusing thoughts, and changes in behavior can make a child's world feel overwhelming after a traumatic experience. Healing Days meets children right where they are with gentle, honest words that validate what they're going through while delivering one essential message: this was never your fault, and you are not alone. Through simple language and calming illustrations, young readers discover that their reactions are normal, that help is available, and that a happy future is still theirs to look forward to.

Written for shared reading with a parent, caregiver, or therapist, this award-winning picture book introduces real, child-friendly coping strategies for feeling safer, calmer, and more confident. Whether used at home, in a counselor's office, or as part of a therapeutic care plan, Healing Days gives children permission to feel, to ask for help, and to believe that healing happens one gentle day at a time.

Key features:

• validates children's trauma responses: helps kids ages 8–11 understand that their big feelings, scary thoughts, and changes in behavior are normal reactions to a frightening experience, and that none of it is their fault
• teaches real coping strategies: introduces simple, accessible techniques for feeling safer, more relaxed, and more in control during difficult moments
• designed for shared therapeutic reading: ideal for use with a parent, caregiver, licensed therapist, or school counselor as part of trauma recovery and emotional support
• award-winning and expert-backed: recipient of the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award for Mind, Body and Spirit, with a downloadable Note to Parents and Caregivers with additional resources available on APA.org
• trusted publisher: from Magination Press®, the children’s imprint of the American Psychological Association, dedicated to emotional well-being and healthy development

Susan Farber Straus, PhD, is a clinical child psychologist who has worked for many years with young children, many of whom have been neglected or experienced other forms of trauma.  Following her education at Cornell University and Ohio State, and internship at McLean Hospital, she worked in both private practice and residential treatment settings. She is currently Senior Psychologist at Catholic Charities Child and Family Services in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband have two daughters, now grown, and three grandchildren.

Maria Bogade is an illustrator who creates her own unique environments and appealing characters to entertain children and adults alike. She also illustrated the Magination Press book Ben's Flying Flowers. She lives with her family in a tiny town in Germany.. Visit her at www.mariabogade.com and follow her on Facebook: @MariaBogadeIllustration and Instagram: @MariaBogadeIllustration.