As the Empathy Day ((the 9th June) is coming up, I’m going to share a book from the Empathy Lab’s 2020 Read for Empathy Book Collections – I Do Not Like Books Anymore! by Daisy Hirst (Walker Books 2019).
This is the second of Natalie and Alphonse series by Hirst. In this book, Natalie, who loves stories and books, is looking forward to learning how to read.
But when she gets her fist book, she find reading is very hard. She tries but it doesn’t go well. She gets frustrated and she says “I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE!”
Luckily, with encouragement and help from Alphonse, Mum and Dad, Natalie regains her love for stories and finds joy of reading.
Like her first Natalie & Alphonse book, Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do! (which is a fantastic book), Hirst is brilliant at addressing the worries that children often feel. Her simple yet expressive illustrations help children to recognise emotions.
So many children experience frustration with learning to read. And it’s not just children. Maybe because people in Japan don’t talk about it much, I didn’t know how common Dyslexia was until some of my colleagues here told me about their Dyslexia. Looking back, I wonder if the classmates whom everyone, including teachers, thought were lazy were actually struggling with something like Dyslexia. I should have asked them. If they were struggling, I should have been more empathic to them.
Books like this help children who are struggling to feel they are understood and it also help others to cultivate empathy. And empathy is very crucial in our troubled world. So Please be sure to join in #EmpathyDay. Find out more here www.empathylab.uk. They have family activities you can try out and share it on social media.
Momoko Abe Illustration 