Book to support mental health awareness for ages 8 and over
Books that acknowledge or explore mental health issues can help to increase awareness, encourage dialogue, reduce stigma and develop real understanding.
The following suggestions offer a spectrum of different perspectives and are well worth seeking out.
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When I See Blue
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When I See Blue
This is a touching and honest book about life in the grip of OCD but also the power of friendship. It’s also a reminder that good …
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Jayben and the Golden Torch
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Jayben and the Golden Torch
A curious, immersive fantasy with complex world-building, engaging characters and quirky creatures. Ideal for readers who enjoy an…
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War of the Wind
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War of the Wind
Max is sure that the new wind turbines on his island are sinister, but will anyone listen to a frustrated deaf schoolboy? Gripping…
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How to be More Hedgehog
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How to be More Hedgehog
Lily has a stammer and when a video of her practising a school presentation is posted online, she feels humiliated. She wants to h…
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The Awesome Power of Sleep
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The Awesome Power of Sleep
This informative non-fiction book looks at the science of sleep and explores the crucial role it plays in the physical and mental …
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The Tiger Who Sleeps Under My Chair
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The Tiger Who Sleeps Under My Chair
In 1884, Emma Linden dreams of being a fossil hunter like her hero Mary Anning - but her world comes crashing down when her brothe…
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The Sad Ghost Club
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The Sad Ghost Club
A sad ghost wants to go to a party, but his social anxiety keeps holding him back. When he meets another anxious ghost, he realise…
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A Pocketful of Stars
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A Pocketful of Stars
Safiya must uncover the truth of her mother’s history to help her survive the present. A beautifully written and page-turning…
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Hopewell High: All Too Much
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Hopewell High: All Too Much
An absorbing school story that looks at the pressures and mental health challenges for young people when trying to live up to expe…
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Paper Avalanche
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Paper Avalanche
Fourteen-year-old Ro Snow’s got a secret: her house is filled to the doors with her mother’s hoarded rubbish. A brilliant, th…
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The 10pm Question
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The 10pm Question
Like his desk, Frankie likes life to be orderly and neat. But then Sydney arrives, and disturbs Frankie's carefully organised worl…
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Tiny Infinities
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Tiny Infinities
Thirteen-year-old Alice is trying to stop her family falling apart. A very beautiful and sensitively handled book that touche…
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The Mystery of the Colour Thief
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The Mystery of the Colour Thief
The book paints a convincing picture of a harrowing time in a young life, and the time, talking and friendship that helps her to p…
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Under Rose-Tainted Skies
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Under Rose-Tainted Skies
Seventeen-year-old Norah is essentially trapped in her own home, caught in the vice-like grip of Agoraphobia and OCD. Then one day…
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The Goldfish Boy
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The Goldfish Boy
Matthew has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Can he help an investigation into the abduction of a child, perhaps without even leavin…
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Michael Rosen's Sad Book
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Michael Rosen's Sad Book
The subject of bereavement is treated in an unusual way in Michael Rosen's Sad Book, which deals with the death of the author's ow…
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Running on the Cracks
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Running on the Cracks
Julia Donaldson's first novel for young adults is a tense thriller about a runaway. Donaldson addresses numerous issues in her gri…
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Bang, Bang, You're Dead!
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Bang, Bang, You're Dead!
Dhami's thriller takes us from a dysfunctional home, where twins Mia and Jamie live with their divorced mother – who has bipo…
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Optimists Die First
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Optimists Die First
Petula's life is ruled by anxiety, fear and pessimism after her little sister died two years before. Then she meets Jacob, and an …
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The Illustrated Mum
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The Illustrated Mum
This is a moving yet unsentimental account of two children coming to terms with their mother’s depression, mental instability and …
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More Than This
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More Than This
Carnegie Medal-winning author Patrick Ness tackles weighty questions of life and death head on in this provocative and challenging…
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Scarlet Ibis
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Scarlet Ibis
At times heart-rending, this is a powerful story which skilfully gains our sympathy for those who are often misjudged, feared and …
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Finding a Voice
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Finding a Voice
This is an engaging story about the two-way nature of friendship and the risks of making assumptions. The overriding message is up…
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The Ghosts of Heaven
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The Ghosts of Heaven
The Ghosts of Heaven is an excellent book that will open up new avenues of thought and future reading and introduces teenage reade…
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My Life on Fire
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My Life on Fire
Since her house burned down, Ren has nothing. Surely everyone else deserves to lose stuff too? Friendship and ‘doing the right thi…
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Frankie’s World
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Frankie’s World
This lovely, often funny, relatable and sensitive story about Frankie, a girl with autism, was inspired by the author Aoife Dooley…
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Am I Normal Yet?
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Am I Normal Yet?
This is a powerful and engrossing read that successfully informs, shocks, reassures and entertains in equal measures.
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Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot
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Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot
This fabulously illustrated book addresses the difficult subject of parental depression, at once describing the horror of Aubrey&r…
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The Red Tree
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The Red Tree
The perfect blend of words and pictures, this is a wonderful book to share with anyone suffering from depression or uncertainty
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