Dr. Annie's Bookshelf

A child psychologist's book recommendations for growth and healing

Mood-Related Challenges

Wishing Wellness

A Workbook for Children of Parents with Mental Illness

Written by Lisa Anne Clarke
Illustrated by Bonnie Matthews
Age range: 2nd grade through 5th grade.
Recommended for: Children with a parent or caregiver who is experiencing psychosis (i.e., hallucinations and/or delusions) or is otherwise behaving very unusually. Parent diagnoses of Bipolar I Disorder, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Delusional Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder with psychotic features are all appropriate. This book is best completed in small doses with a therapist or a caregiver who is not symptomatic.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation, Emotional processing, Emotional literacy
Read the full review

Danny and the Blue Cloud

Coping with Childhood Depression

Written by James Foley, D.Ed.
Illustrated by Shirley Ng-Benitez
Age range: Best for young children–preschool through kindergarten, maybe first grade.
Recommended for: Good for young children who are struggling with their mood (or as this books says, who are “born under a blue cloud”). This book could function well in therapy as an introduction to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and at home as an introduction to the benefits of positive self-talk and getting out of bed to do fun things even when we don’t feel like it!
Evidence-Based Practices: Behavioral activation, Cognitive restructuring
Read the full review

My Happy Sad Mummy

Written by Michelle Vasiliu
Illustrated by Lucia Masciullo
Age range: Preschool through 1st grade.
Recommended for: Exclusively for young children with parents or caregivers with Bipolar I Disorder who have been hospitalized or will likely need to be hospitalized. This book isn’t perfect. The mother has “happy” days and “sad” days, which isn’t an accurate representation of manic or depressive episodes for most people, and it’s just not a particularly engaging story. But it does introduce the idea of a parent having up and down moods and needing to be hospitalized. Its primary message is that no matter what, the child is loved by their parent with bipolar disorder, and they will be taken care of even if their parent with bipolar disorder is not always able to take care of them.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

The Princess and the Fog

A Story for Children with Depression

Written and illustrated by Lloyd Jones
Age range: Preschool through 3rd grade. It has a story that younger kids will understand and enjoy, but there’s enough complexity that older kids will connect with it too.
Recommended for: This book is great for any child at all interested in fantasy or fairy tales who is experiencing their own version of the fog (i.e., depressive symptoms). This book could be used to start conversations about mood, therapy, behavioral activation , and/or medication .
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation, Behavioral activation, Medication
Read the full review

A Kids Book About Depression

Written by Kileah McIlvain
Age range: Best for older kids–3rd or 4th grade through middle school.
Recommended for: This book is great for an older child who has recently been diagnosed with a depressive disorder or who a parent or provider suspects may be holding onto heavy feelings without sharing them. It vividly puts words to the experience of depression without sugarcoating the pain, and it provides hope that sharing about this experience with a loved one and getting help will lead to a child “learning to see through the darkness.”
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation, Medication
Read the full review

Up and Down Mom

Written and illustrated by Summer Maçon
Age range: Preschool through 2nd grade.
Recommended for: Young children who have a parent with Bipolar I Disorder who need reassurance that they are not alone in their experience. The book is probably more reassuring to parents reading it than the children intended to be the audience, but it can be used to open conversations about how a child feels when a parent acts erratically, is unavailable, or is in the hospital, as well as conversations about emergency planning (e.g., who they can contact if they’re worried about their parent or themselves and who will take care of them if a parent is unable to). It’s not a great book, but there’s not much better out there.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

I Feel…Meh

Written and illustrated by DJ Corchin
Age range: Preschool all the way through elementary school.
Recommended for: Kids who are struggling with feelings of “meh” (i.e., nothing sounding good), rather than feelings of sadness/guilt/grief will connect with this book. It’s simple and accessible but describes a feeling and path to feeling better that’s quite relevant to anyone who is currently languishing or feeling blah. It will likely elicit a giggle or two, and it gently suggests an important treatment tool (i.e., behavioral activation ) without being too heavy-handed or at all dark.
Evidence-Based Practices: Behavioral activation
Read the full review

Ruby Finds a Worry

Written and illustrated by Tom Percival
Age range: This book is short with simple language–preschoolers through 2nd grade.
Recommended for: This book is great to read with children who seem to be carrying heavy feelings around with them and not sharing them. Kids with worries and/or mood symptoms would likely benefit from reading this book–the message that one can feel better by connecting with others and sharing one’s feelings is quite applicable to both depression symptoms as well as worries. For therapists, this book could be helpful as a read early in therapy with a child who isn’t sure talking about their feelings will help at all.
Evidence-Based Practices: Emotional Processing
Read the full review

Why Are You So Sad?

A Child’s Book About Parental Depression

Written by Beth Andrews
Illustrated by Nicole Wong
Age range: Best for 1st grade through 3rd grade, but adequately applicable to kindergarteners through 4th grade.
Recommended for: Children with parents (or other caregivers) who have mood disorders will benefit from the developmentally appropriate explanations and reassurances this book provides. It’s part workbook, with opportunities for a child to draw and write about their feelings, questions, and experiences related to having a parent with depression. Great for family members, therapists, and/or school counselors to complete with a child whose parent is struggling with depression. Includes a section on hospitalization.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation, Emotional processing
Read the full review

Not Today, Celeste!

A dog's tale about her human's depression

Written and illustrated by Liza Stevens
Age range: Preschool through 3rd grade.
Recommended for: This adorable story is great for young children to read with a parent or caregiver who is struggling with their mood. This book is reassuring for both children and their parents–it teaches children that their parent’s depression isn’t the child’s fault, that their parent still loves them, and that there’s help to be had; it reminds parents that depression isn’t their fault either and that their child will continue loving them.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

When Sadness Comes to Call

Written and illustrated by Eva Eland
Age range: Preschool through elementary school. It’s simple on the surface but the message is profound.
Recommended for: Really wonderful for a child impacted by a mood disorder or general feelings of sadness who is inclined to want to push away their feelings rather than attend to them with curiosity. For therapists, it’s a perfect introduction to the mindfulness and acceptance components of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) . This book is available in many languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, and German.
Evidence-Based Practices: Mindfulness, Behavioral activation
Read the full review

The Color Thief

A family’s story of depression

Written by Andrew Fusek Peters and Polly Peters
Illustrated by Karin Littlewood
Age range: Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Recommended for: This book is well-suited for a child whose parent or loved one is experiencing a depressive episode and is beginning or going through treatment. It describes the emotions that often accompany having a parent with a mood disorder, and it provides hope that a parent’s treatment will help the color return to their world. Includes hospitalization as a component of the father’s treatment.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

A Kids Book About Shame

Written by Jamie Letourneau
Age range: 2nd through 5th, or even 6th grade.
Recommended for: This book is best for a more mature, verbal child who has some insight into their thoughts and feelings. It takes seriously the intensity of children’s feelings of shame and helps kids to recognize and name the feeling, as well as to share about what is causing them to feel shame. This book is appropriate for a child who has experienced trauma or abuse and is subsequently feeling shame, as well as a child who struggles more generally with feelings of inadequacy or negative self-talk. (It makes a nod to shame sometimes being the result of “something we did or didn’t do,” as well as “something done to us.”)
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation, Emotional processing, Cognitive restructuring
Read the full review

Shame Mud

Written by Jamie Jensen
Illustrated by Dustin Baird
Age range: Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Recommended for: Children who are burdened by self-criticism after they make mistakes will likely benefit from this story’s description of shame and the reminder that mistakes don’t define their self-worth. It provides a lovely model of a mother joining her child in his emotional pain and then helping him to gently challenge his shaming self-talk.
Evidence-Based Practices: Cognitive restructuring
Read the full review

The Awfulizer

Learning to Overcome the Shame Game

Written by Kristin Maher
Illustrated by Robert Dunn
Age range: 1st grade through 4th grade.
Recommended for: Great to read with a child who has a lot of negative self-talk who will benefit from learning to challenge these thoughts. This book pulls for kids to draw their own versions of the Awfulizer and to start thinking about what lies their Awfulizer is telling them about themselves.
Evidence-Based Practices: Cognitive restructuring
Read the full review

A Kids Book About Suicide

Written by Angela N. Frazier
Age range: 2nd grade through 6th grade.
Recommended for: Children who have lost a loved one to suicide and are ready to talk about it. Best for kids who are verbally-oriented and craving some real talk about what they and their family have gone through. This book is the most applicable in this category to children who have lost someone they care about other than a caregiver (e.g., extended family members, teachers, etc.) to suicide.
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

Rafi’s Red Racing Car

Explaining Suicide and Grief to Young Children

Written and illustrated by Louise Moir
Age range: Best for young children–preschool through 1st grade.
Recommended for: Exclusively for young children who have lost a parent or other loved one to suicide. Best read after the family has had a bit of time to stabilize and reestablish safety and the child has had some time to process what has happened (i.e., not immediately after a suicide, but perhaps several weeks or months later).
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

Luna’s Red Hat

An Illustrated Storybook to Help Children Cope with Loss and Suicide

Written and illustrated by Emmi Smid
Age range: Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Recommended for: Exclusively for children who have lost a loved one to suicide, or who are aware of a loved one’s attempted suicide. It reassures children that suicide is not their fault or their loved one’s but rather the result of an illness, and it models and validates the complex range of feelings that a child may be having. Best read with a child after the family has had some time to restabilize to some extent and a child is starting to have questions and express complex feelings about their loved one’s suicide (i.e., not immediately after the loss).
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychoeducation
Read the full review

Virginia Wolf

Written by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
Age range: 1st grade through 4th grade.
Recommended for: This book is ideal for a child whose sibling is going through a depressive episode and seems “wolfish” (i.e., irritable and grumpy). It is particularly well-suited for a child who might be worried that they no longer matter to their sibling due to a sibling’s irritability or withdrawal from family interactions.
Evidence-Based Practices: Behavioral activation
Read the full review