WQED Kids Book List Focuses on Promoting Empathy in Children
WQED Kids has released a list of eight books that can be used to promote empathy among children.
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The focus of the booklist is to promote empathy through listening. Reading aloud to children is important for brain development - but it also strengthens family bonds and increases children’s understanding of the world.
While listening to stories, children are learning to understand how others feel and how they want to be understood. Reading together leads to empathy when children can listen and understand the thoughts and feelings of others.
The books on WQED Kids’ list help show children how listening is caring and is a skill they can use to connect with others. When reading these books to children, caregivers should discuss what it means to listen well and feel heard.
Caregivers should ask children how listening in each story helped, how the character felt before someone listened to them, and why the character listened to someone in the story. Children should then be asked about a time when someone listened to them like the character in the book and how that made them feel.
The books on the list include:
The Rabbit Listened (Cori Doerrfeld)
My Story Friend (Kalli Dakas and Dream Chen)
Pinkalicious and the New Teacher (Victoria Kann)
Anzu the Great Listener (Benson Shum)
My Hands Tell a Story (Kelly Starling Lyons)
Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor (Kate Messner)
Listen to My Trumpet (Mo Willems)
Judge Juliette (Laura Gehl)
To read descriptions of the books, check out WQED Kids’ list.
