Mental Health in Children’s Literature

The Labors of Hercules BealAuthors Dr. Nan­cy Bo Flood and Ann Jacobus have been curat­ing a list of tra­di­tion­al­ly pub­lished, excep­tion­al children’s lit­er­a­ture that tack­les men­tal ill­ness for over a decade.

They also include good fic­tion for younger read­ers about grief.

They read pic­ture books, ear­ly read­ers, mid­dle-grade and young adult novels.

You will find a guide to these lists, along with help­ful resources, in Bookol­o­gy.

Here’s what they look for in children’s fiction:

  • main char­ac­ters deal­ing with men­tal ill­ness them­selves or in a friend or loved one.
  • accu­rate nomen­cla­ture and diagnoses
  • sto­ries that avoid tropes and ablism
  • sto­ries that are hon­est and accu­rate, but optimistic
  • sto­ries that mod­el sup­port com­ing from at least one quar­ter — fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, and/or professionals
  • sto­ries that mod­el effec­tive cop­ing with lifestyle and/or medication
  • sto­ries in which a character’s men­tal health is only one of their many attrib­ut­es (that may or may not be problematic)

Books are cat­e­go­rized by the dis­or­ders they depict includ­ing severe men­tal ill­ness such as schiz­o­phre­nias and bipo­lar dis­or­ders, as well as depres­sion, sui­ci­dal­i­ty, anx­i­ety, sub­stance abuse and addic­tion, OCD, self-harm, the effects of trau­ma and abuse, and the chal­lenges for LGBT kids. They also include good sto­ries that deal with grief espe­cial­ly for the very young.

Stig­ma sur­round­ing men­tal ill­ness has dimin­ished since we first start­ed track­ing these books,” says Ann, a for­mer sui­cide cri­sis line coun­selor, “but it’s still a for­mi­da­ble opponent.”

Nan­cy says, “We love to speak to edu­ca­tors, writ­ers, and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als, in per­son or vir­tu­al­ly, about great lit­er­a­ture that can help a young read­er rec­og­nize them­selves or a loved one, help them see pos­i­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties for liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness, and that encour­ages them to speak up about men­tal health and to reach out for support.”

They’ll be pre­sent­ing next in Boston at the NCTE (Nation­al Coun­cil of Teach­ers of Eng­lish) con­fer­ence on Novem­ber 23, 2024.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments