Using Literature to Support Children's Mental Health

Generation Z and Alpha youth are facing mental health crises that many adults are unprepared to address. There have been dramatic rises in the numbers of young people reporting feelings of hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. The global COVID-19 pandemic brought such a devastating impact on mental health of young people that it sparked national and global conversations, but experts say that the pandemic only exacerbated problematic trends already well underway.  One small silver lining is the proliferation of new fiction and nonfiction geared towards children who are struggling, including books with themes related to social and emotional learning, psychological wellbeing, and specific mental health challenges. Edited by former public and school librarians, this important resource explores the exciting landscape of recent children’s literature and provides helpful frameworks and strategies for adults to think about the evaluation, curation, and use of these books with young people. Readers will discover

• books for children dealing with the cancer diagnosis of a relative, illnesses, death, loss, and grief, with suggested activities that can be paired with these titles to further assist young readers in the grieving and healing process;
• fantasy bibliotherapy to help children understand, process, and cope with anxiety-provoking situations in their lives;
• graphic novels that promote mental and emotional wellbeing, including those that depict common childhood mental health conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder;
• guidance on reaching historically underserved population groups such as Black girls, Muslim children, and young Latin American migrants; and
• using children’s literature to support the unique needs of autistic mental health.

Kim Becnel is a former youth services public librarian and current professor of Library Science at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She teaches and researches in the areas of children's and young adult literature for diverse populations; public library management, programming, and services; intellectual freedom and censorship; and online pedagogy.

Robin A. Moeller is a professor of Library Science at Appalachian State University. She is a former high school librarian and received her Ph.D in Curriculum Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research interests lie in visual representations of information, as they apply to youth and schooling, as well as the reading habits and interests of children and teens.