8 Books for World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is marked every year on October 10th to raise awareness about mental health around the world and to mobilize efforts to support those experiencing mental health issues. It may be difficult to address mental health, especially for children, so here is a list of books for younger kids, older kids, teens, and even a journal for anyone to help approach a vital part of our health.
With his colorful illustrations, playful humor, and inclusive storytelling, beloved author Todd Parr has long been a favorite among young readers and caregivers. His books promote an essential message of love and acceptance that is inspiring, empowering, and accessible.
Sometimes I feel silly.
Sometimes I feel like eating pizza for breakfast.
Sometimes I feel brave.
Sometimes I feel like trying something new...
Todd illustrates a wide range of moods to introduce readers to the powerful, ever-changing, and sometimes nonsensical emotions that we all feel. With Todd’s trademark bold, bright colors and silly scenes, The Feelings Book helps young readers understand and discuss their feelings—both the fun and not-so-fun—in a kid-friendly and accessible way.
A bilingual edition, The Feelings Book / El libro de los sentimientos, is also available for purchase.
An emotional and tender award-winning picture book that accessibly explores depression within a family, through the use of color.
I've always been my dad's little sunspot.
But one day, his world was no longer bright and yellow—it was a deep, dark blue.
As one father embarks on an emotional journey, his daughter will navigate life lived in and around his depression. Most days the sun won’t be able to peek through the clouds. But with each new wave of change, love will always bond them together.
This poignant and important story, with its use of color to indicate the ups and downs of one family's emotions, is an accessible way to discuss mental illness with young readers.
★ “Exceptionally graceful and delightful” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ “A beautiful story of resilience.” School Library Journal, starred review
★ “Meaningful and impactful ” — School Library Connection, starred review
From the author of The Deep & Dark Blue comes a tender graphic novel, perfect for our time, that gently explores themes of self-discovery, friendship, healing from tragedy, and hope for a better tomorrow.
Struggling with anxiety after witnessing a harrowing instance of gun violence, Manuel Soto copes through photography, using his cell-phone camera to find anchors that keep him grounded. His days are a lonely, latchkey monotony until he's teamed with his classmates, Sebastian and Caysha, for a group project.
Sebastian lives on a grass-fed cattle farm outside of town, and Manuel finds solace in the open fields and in the antics of the newborn calf Sebastian is hand-raising. As Manuel aides his new friends in their preparations for the local county fair, he learns to open up, confronts his deepest fears, and even finds first love.
This title will be simultaneously available in paperback.
A moving and beautifully written story about what can happen when two completely different boys are forced to put aside their differences, for fans of Wonder.
There are two sides to every story.
Alex’s OCD is so severe that it’s difficult for him to even leave his house some days. His classmate Dan is so angry that he lashes out at the easiest target he can find at school: Alex. When their moms arrange for Alex and Dan to spend time together over winter break, it seems like a recipe for certain disaster…until it isn’t. Once forced together, these two sworn enemies discover that there is much more to each other than they ever knew.
Dear Evan Hansen,
Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...
When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's griefover the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore—even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend.As Evan gets pulled deeper into their swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he's doing can't be right, but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be?
No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose. And a website. He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself.
A simple lie leads to complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief, authenticity, and the struggle to belong in an age of instant connectivity and profound isolation.