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Helping children deal with ‘big feelings’ can have a profoundly positive impact on their development, both academic and personal – and sharing specially chosen stories is a way of doing so that’s as gentle as it is powerful.

The Sad Skeleton is the first in a thoughtful new series of titles called Finding Your Way, explicitly aimed at encouraging youngsters to identify, understand and manage a range of emotions that can easily prove overwhelming at any age.

Its creator, Kay Brophy, is an experienced and respected counsellor and psychologist who has worked in schools for the past 14 years and is running a pilot training programme for teachers and parents alongside the book; through fun characters and simple, relatable stories – charmingly illustrated by Katy Boys – she hopes to offer little ones a safe way to explore difficult feelings and discuss them with a trusted adult.

For example, in this tale (as the title suggests) readers meet a kind but misunderstood skeleton who is struggling to be happy – until his friend Dave the bat helps him to work out why this is the case, and, crucially, what he might be able to do to make things better.

Review by Teachwire