BLOG TOUR: The Truth about Martians by Melissa Savage

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Truth about Martians by Melissa Savage. A brilliant story set against the backdrop of 1940s UFO sightings and featuring a wonderful cast of quirky characters, it’s packed full of Melissa’s trademark warmth and wit. You can read my full review here. Melissa is a writer and therapist for children and families and today joins the blog to share a wonderful post with her thoughts on the healing power of stories. Welcome to the blog Melissa!

Story for Healing Hearts and Souls

By Melissa Savage

In today’s everchanging world, anxiety is an increasingly prevalent diagnosis happening in our children. Which is why developing coping skills is more important today than ever before. How do we develop adaptive coping skills to traverse life’s difficulties and even more important make positive change in the world around us? There are many ways, one of which is through story. Story is who we are and how we heal. It is how we process being human on our journey through life and it always has been.

As a former child and family therapist, I’ve always been a proponent of bibliotherapy as a tool to use with children of all ages. It is the use of story for insight, growth and healing. I think as parents and protectors of children our first instinct is to shield them from all the negative things that go on in the world. However, in this information age, shielding them has become a somewhat impossible task. They live in a world that is anything but predictable or controllable or even stable or safe at times. How do we prepare our children at an appropriate age level, yet continue to protect them from what they are not ready to know? Stories can provide a safe environment to learn the challenges of finding solutions to our problems, coping with change or even standing by someone else who may be going through it. And story can inspire us.

In third grade I ordered a novel from the Scholastic book order form in school. It was called Don’t Hurt Laurie and it was a book about child abuse. I didn’t know about child abuse up until that point and the book reached me to my soul. In fourth grade I became a tutor for young children in our elementary school and in sixth grade I became a peer counselor. It was this story that also inspired me to become a child and family therapist later in life where I specialized in trauma and abuse of children.

I believe that through the safety of story, children can be exposed to life lessons in such a way that they are given the opportunity to gain insights, build coping skills, assist others and even be inspired to make a difference in the world. I see this concept being grasped by teachers, librarians and the publishing industry as well. Both Random House Children’s Books and Scholastic Books have developed resources for teachers to help enhance the learning experience when sharing issue driven books with the young reader. Whether it’s book clubs, book trailers and even empathy bingo, these resources are aimed at acceptance, insight into the differences of others, healing from loss, standing up to bullying and many other issues kids face.

I wish we lived in a time in which children didn’t need to know the things they do, however, they are exposed more now than ever. And it’s up to us to make sure they have the best tools in their toolbelt to endure, overcome and even be inspired to create positive change in the world around them.