Here at Coram Beanstalk we see everyday how much of a positive impact sharing books with children can have on their mental health and wellbeing.

The support our 1:1 dedicated reading helpers provide every week is just as much about supporting children's wellbeing and building their self confidence, as it is about helping them become readers.

Sharing and talking about books can be a great way for children to actually express how they are feeling through their responses to characters and situations in the books, discuss some of the more sensitive subjects they might not usually feel confident asking about, or simply as an opportunity to relax and switch off from the daily worries and pressures they might be facing. 

This Children's Mental Health Week we have worked with Coram Life Education and Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation to develop a Mental Health and Wellbeing Toolkit for schools and parents based on the framework of the NHS five steps to mental wellbeing.

We've added some books and activities based on each step:

1. Connect with others

2. Be active

3. Take notice (mindfulness)

4. Learn and create

5. Give to others

You'll find the books listed below in our Beanstalk Brilliant Books to support wellbeing but we've chosen one of our favourites as our Book of the Month for February.

Download the mental health wellbeing toolkit here

About the book

Wonder by R. J Palacio

The unforgettable and life-affirming story of August Pullman - a boy who's desperate to blend in, but is destined to stand out.

'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school. All he wants is to be accepted. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Astonishingly powerful, WONDER is a read you'll never forget.

Equally brilliant books to support children's mental health and wellbeing

Buy any of these books here and Coram Beanstalk receive a 10% donation from the sale