Turning pages, finding words: Picture books for children’s emotional well-being

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, after the initial novelty of working from home and online meetings had worn off, adults found an outlet for their frustration through endless loaves of banana bread and podcasts. But did children have something similar to express the way their lives had suddenly changed?

Garima Gupta, a Delhi-based artist and bookmaker, realised children suffered silently because they didn’t have the words to articulate their feelings, and parents weren’t doing much except asking children to simply “brush it off!”

Acknowledging emotions

It was then that the idea for Tara Goes Aahhh was born. This is the first book from UnStuck, a mental health picture book series from HarperCollins Children’s Books. This elaborate, wordless, pop-up book shows a young girl, Tara, getting up in the middle of the night because her toy dinosaur is thirsty and could use a drink. But it is dark, she can hear dogs barking, and the shadows are playing with her mind. Tara now needs to face her fears and find a way to make the dark a little less terrifying.

“The UnStuck series is designed to help young readers identify their emotions, locate them within their bodies, and understand that it is possible to move through feelings of fear,...

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