Description
Whether from television news reports, the car radio, digital media, or adult discussions, children are often bombarded with information about the world around them. When the events being described include violence, extreme weather events, a disease outbreak, or discussions of more dispersed threats such as climate change, children may become frightened and overwhelmed. Parents and caregivers can be prepared to help them understand and process the messages around them by using this book.
What to Do When the News Scares You provides a way to help children put scary events into perspective. And, if children start to worry or become anxious about things they've heard, there are ideas to help them calm down and cope. This book also helps children identify reporters' efforts to add excitement to the story which may also make threats seem more imminent, universal, and extreme.
Read and complete the activities in What to Do When the News Scares You with your child to help them to understand the news in context-who, what, where, when, how-as a means of introducing a sense of perspective.
Also available in Spanish Que Hacer Cuando las Noticias te Asustan: Guia para Ninos para Entender las Noticias Actuales
About the Author
Jacqueline B. Toner, PhD is a clinical psychologist with over 30 years in private practice working with children and parents. She earned her PhD from University of Virginia and serves as Chief Facilitator for a medical resources project with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Toner has co-authored books with Claire A. B. Freeland, PhD, including the What to Do Series for Kids as well as Depression: A Teen's Guide to Survive and Thrive and Yes I Can: A Girl and Her Wheelchair. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit jacquelinetoner.net.
Janet McDonnell is a writer and illustrator whose characters populate many books and magazines for children. She has both taught and written for children from preschool to high school. She lives in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Visit janetmcdonnell.com, @McDonnellDoodle on Twitter, and @JanetMcDonnellIllo on Instagram.
Reviews
Short, interactive lessons about media tactics and source reliability are interspersed with exercises to help kids cope with the strong emotions that can accompany exposure to "scary news...." Children are invited to become investigators, with the book providing spaces for them to jot down observations each time they learn a new aspect of reporting, including camera angles, opinions versus facts, and the famous W questions.... From knowledge comes power over emotions. * Kirkus Reviews *
This very timely book should prove enormously helpful to parents, teachers, librarians, and especially children. Designed to be shared between a trusted adult and a child, the book deals with topics like identifying and investigating scary news to figure out what's happening, understanding different types of news, understanding how reporters make news sound more exciting, identifying viewpoints offered, determining the reliability of sources, and asking questions to make sure your ideas are accurate... In these times of climate change, infectious diseases, and political unrest, a book that focuses on helping children deal with their thoughts and feelings about news is welcome and much needed. Though purchasing books with fill-in sections isn't the norm for libraries, this work's content and usefulness proves the exception to the rule. * School Library Journal, STARRED review *
Book Information
ISBN 9781433836978
Author Jacqueline B. Toner
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Magination Press, (American Psychological Association)
Publisher American Psychological Association