Just So Stories

Simon & Schuster

September 2025

• Little Book Press
• ISBN13: 9781923141391
• LIST PRICE: AU$ 24.99 / NZ$ 29.99

As if to prove my comments about these two creators previously in this 2025 line-up of picture books, here is a stunning one with them in combination as they were for the acclaimed The Second Sky. And this one is a good addition to today’s titles focused on well-being for our Smalls.

Kids worry and fret, some more than others but all of them have doubts and worries, big or small. This is an ideal book to take those ‘whispers’ – the self-doubt, the shame, the negative feelings, the lack of confidence, the worry over so many things and on it goes – and dispel them.

Providing children with strategies for doing this is something that we can all do – educators and family alike. It really reminds me of when The Kid was first living with me, beset with grief and her habitual anxiety exacerbated by that, along with her frustrations and self-doubt with regard to her impairment.

My foremost priority has always been to bolster her confidence, provide her with strategies for self-regulation of her anxieties, support her and scaffold her learning. Teaching her, in the way that suited her learning style and empowered her to rise above her disability has been the greatest triumph of my life, personal and professional. Her disability remains but her confidence, her willingness to learn both from others and by her own self-motivated actions, her ability to self-regulate and recognise her ‘whispers’ are all astounding. She’s come so far from the tiny and sad little girl who would hide behind me, not make eye contact and was constantly hyper-vigilant.

As friends have pointed out to me, not every kiddo has this in their immediate circle so here is where we, as caring mentors, can step in and actively teach them these strategies. Many schools are introducing such well-being programs. I know my favourite school for relief teaching does this particularly well.

This is the perfect book to support in such an enterprise, or simply to use in your classroom or library. I would certainly be putting it in the hands of the school counsellor or chaplain and also promoting it to parents via the newsletter or social media.

Text and illos are a perfect match. The ‘whispers’ – those nasty nagging doubts and worries are cute enough to take the edge off them being scary and it’s a good thing, in my opinion, to give them a slightly comical look. It makes it so much easier for one to be ferocious about quelling them – rather like Lupin teaching the ‘Riddikulus’ spell.

The direct teaching and scaffolding of socio-emotional skills is as important, and probably more so, than teaching academics I would argue, and it is books such as this one that provide us with a perfect opening to move into these conversations.

Do not be surprised to see this one on awards lists in the coming year because it has all the hallmarks of success – I love it and am giving it a roaring 5 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁rating for kiddos from as young as Prep right up to end of primary – being older does not preclude those ‘whispers’ (as many an adult knows!).

Scaffold Parenting: Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant, and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety