Help please

[newjerseychick]

Hi Mumsnetters,

Can you recommend to me books that have helped your child/ siblings to deal with going into hospital, worries, anxiety, health issues etc. I am trying to set up a new service that will lend books to children and their parents whilst they are in hospital to help build mastery, courage and hope.

examples I have are owl babies - anxiety with separation
my big bag of worries - worry and anxiety
harry potter - builds courage

I'd really appreciate any advice you'd have

Thank you

The Sad Book by Michael Rosen - dealing with grief/ bereavement/ feelings of sadness.

The Harry (of bucketful of dinosaurs fame) one where his robots help his Nan out of hospital. Must check DS2's bookshelf for the title unless someone remembers,

Perhaps Enid Blyton's Malory Towers? When I read this I longed to be away from my parents having an adventure. I know hospital is not the ideal adventure but all the same, the characters are also away from their parents.
I second Rosen's sad book. Oliver Jeffer's The Heart and the Bottle is worth a look for coping with bereavement. It's about a little girl who loves her Grandad, he dies and she gets sad so she puts her heart in a bottle, and it's about her getting her heart 'out of the bottle' again.
There's also a Peppa Pig one and a Topsy and Tim one about going to hospital as well as a Topsy and Time go to the Doctor.
Usborne First Experiences do a 'going to the hospital' one, by Anna Civardi.

There's a meg and mog book where owl breaks his wing and has to go to hospital. Damned if I can find it on Amazon but worth including as his operation hurts and there are times he's scared etc.

Have you tried your library service? - some have ready-made book lists on their websites for these sort of issues. If your area still has a schools library service, they often have collections like this too.

Thank you all so much - this has really helped, its great to know which ones have worked for your children.

Have you seen The Yes? It only came out this year. It's a wonderful book about helping little people find their inner confidence.

The Dark from Lemony Snicket is also a great, relatively new picture book, about overcoming fear of the dark. It's really good.

Hi,
would any of you be willing to write a very short case study on how one of the books you have used has helped your child In a hospital situation? If you were happy to I would use it at the hospital I work at to explain how setting up this sort of service would help children and families in hospital. If you would can you message me?
Thank you again for the suggestions of books. I'm adding them to a list of books to get.