What to Do When the News Scares You

Starred review from November 1, 2021

Gr 2-4-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. There are many interactive activities offered and spaces in the book for readers to draw and write. These drawings could serve as the basis of conversations. There are even activities that deal with "un-news," the ordinary things happening all around us that are comforting to recognize. The book's short chapters have titles such as "What is News?", "What's the Viewpoint?", and "What's Your Source?" The author, an experienced clinical psychologist, provides many activities and strategies that will help children feel safe and secure. The black-and-white illustrations include diverse family settings that highlight conversations between children and parents, as well as images that highlight news reporters on the job. 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. VERDICT 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.-Myra Zarnowski, City Univ. of New York

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2021
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." Ten short chapters are preceded by a note to caregivers, clarifying that using the book requires adult supervision and that the intended audience does not include children who "have themselves experienced trauma or loss." That sensible caveat makes more palatable the initial example of a White, middle-class nuclear family in which the children worry as Dad watches news simultaneously on TV and the internet, and Mom calls Grandma. The frequent black-and-white illustrations do offer varied representation in subsequent vignettes. Both the art and the conversational text imply readers under 10. From the start, the text acknowledges that frightening things do happen in the world and that news media use techniques to keep news "interesting"--which can also make things seem scarier. 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. Climate change anxiety gets its rightful due, as do relaxation techniques. Violent, systemic racism--recently forefronting scary news--is undermined by positive references to police. (This book was reviewed digitally.) From knowledge comes power over emotions. (Nonfiction. 6-9)

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