Description
Empathy – understand and share the feelings of another.
Crunch – After Crunch refuses to share his meal with Cheddar, he imagines the mouse struggling to find food and being hunted by a cat, which makes him decide to take action. Children could be encouraged to practice visualising the circumstances of others in order to become more empathetic.
The Jar of Happiness – Meg invents her own kind of happiness. She keeps it in a jar and uses it to cheer up her friends and family when they are feeling low. When her jar goes missing, she receives support from all of the people she has helped, and learns about new ways to make happiness. After reading this book, children can make their own jars of happiness and fill them with drawings / objects that make them happy.
The Flower – Brigg lives in a dystopian city without plants. One day he makes a discovery which could change his life. Children can read the facial expressions and body language of the characters (e.g Looking down as they walk to work and the lack of eye contact) to recognise that the people in the metropolis feel unhappy and isolated. The first introduction of bright colours (green, vibrant pink) occurs when Brigg reads the book about flowers – this is also the first time we see Brigg smile. Children can talk about the illustration on the page ‘He read it in secret’, developing their empathy skills by thinking about how Brigg feels and pointing out key adjectives.
Beyond the Fence – Piggy lives with a controlling boy called Thomas in a large house. One day, Piggy is left to his own devices and he ventures outside where he meets a wild boar. The wild pig talks to piggy about life beyond the fence and Piggy realises for the first time that he has the power to make decisions for himself. The book provides plenty of opportunities to discuss the complexities of relationships (particularly ones that are toxic in nature) and how we can help others to feel happy and free.
UUGGHH – Slug was very upset, as he feels no one likes him and the whole world thought he was ugly. Spider makes friends and enquires as to why he is so sad. Spider empathises and explains that most people are scared of me because they think I’m ugly, but I am extraordinary beautiful. Slug decided he needed to find out what ‘beautiful’ really was, by asking others, but everyone gave him a different answer.
The Very Long Sleep – Fox and friends have so much fun playing throughout the summer that they decide to live together. Unfortunately, everyone except Fox hibernates! Children can focus on Fox’s feelings and gain a better understanding of how lonely and isolated one can feel when certain differences between friends become obstacles. The importance of communication is clear in this story; Fox’s lonely experience could have been avoided if fox’s friends had mentioned that they sleep through winter. They resolve this by apologising. Fox resolves to find more non winter sleeping friends before next winter so he doesn’t get lonely.
