The Children’s Shelf
A book for life’s little-big things.
Because something small to us can be enormous to them.
The Children’s Shelf
Because something small to us can be enormous to them.
Something is going on. They will not go into school, or they are up at two every night, or a friendship has come apart and nobody will say why. You want to help and you are not sure what to say.
This is a shelf for exactly those moments. Ninety-seven topics, from tantrums to grief to wobbly teeth, each one split into four ages so you land on books written for the child you actually have. Every book has been read or checked, and there is a line about why it might help.
The proper word for this is bibliotherapy, choosing a book for the person and the moment rather than for the reading age. Most parents never need the word. It is here in case you do.
It is free, and it always will be.
All ninety-seven topics in one place, from Anger to Zest. Have a look through if you would rather browse than search.
Open the A–ZStart with the search box at the top of this page, and type it the way you would say it out loud. Then find your child’s age on the page and start there. The ages are a rough guide, not a rule: a nine year old who is struggling may want a gentler book, and that is fine.
Read it with them if they will let you. Most of the good ones work best out loud.
A book is not a fix. What it does is give a child a character in the same trouble, and a way to talk about it sideways rather than head on, which is often the only way in.
If something worries you beyond what a book can reach, please talk to your doctor or their school.
I’m Georgia Clare, a writer and a mother of two grown daughters, living in a village in south west France with a forest behind the house. I have spent years finding the right book for the right moment, first for my own children and then for everybody else’s.
This site is the children’s side of Book Quote Therapy, where I do the same thing for grown-ups. There are prints of the lines worth keeping at BookQuoteDecor, a guided way in at The Literary Compass, and my own books and meditations at georgiaclare.com.
Nothing here is sponsored. If a book is not right, I have left it out.