A Few Books to Begin the Conversation

Hey, Daijah here. It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and I want to use this as a way to reach out.

I know that a lot of parents find it hard to talk about grief and anxiety and depression. Especially Christian parents. While I acknowledge that it is difficult to talk about these sad and dark emotions, there has to be a place for empathy in Christ. I have opened my mind to the realization that bad things can happen to even those of us in Christ, and if no one’s talking about the hard emotions, how will children ever learn about them, and how will teenagers ever be brave enough to share the feelings they’ve been taught to be ashamed of?

So to make the conversation easier, I’ve compiled a list of read-alouds and read-alones for parents and their kids to read and talk about, actually talk about.

The first on this list is one I actually read with my awesome younger brother. It made him sigh sadly, smile remorsefully, and listen fully.

Paper Wishes. I really love this book. I really, really do. Not just because it depicts the Japanese-American interment experience from a young child’s eyes, but also because it delves into the mind of a mute child. The story is about a girl named Manami who loses her dog, Yujiin, when she tries to sneak him onto the train to Manzanar, the prison camp where her and her family are being placed. Throughout the book, she struggles to cope with the loss of everything she used to have, while helping her mother tend to the garden and drawing pictures. While making wishes that Yujiin will come back. Nobody knows how to get Manami to speak again, not even her.

I had a point in my life where it was very hard for me to talk and share my feelings; I know how Manami felt, being a military child and having to move from place to place. With the feelings I’d already been experiencing, I was equipped with the empathy to understand Manami. Now that my brother has heard it, I’m certain that he has begun to understand the impact of trauma on one’s life and voice.

Now that we’ve started down this path, I want to highlight another book that portrays quietness the way it truly is.

The Night Diary is truly a masterful book. Heartbreaking and realistic, sad and yet true, Nisha’s diary speaks to the depths of my soul. But when the partition line splitting Pakistan from India is made legal and Nisha’s family has to move away from home, Nisha finds it easier to speak to her diary. After a bad choice puts her family in danger, Nisha feels destroyed and loses her bravery–not a happy ending at all.

I don’t think you would see the work put into fleshing Nisha out as a character until the second, or maybe the third time reading it; perhaps it will take until high school, like it did me, to see that Nisha is struggling with legitimate problems that are relevant to kids today. I love this book in a bittersweet way, and I beg you to read it for both the historical and the emotional aspects.

The next book I suggest is one that blatantly states its main character’s being selectively mute.

The eponymous title tells you already that the protagonist is called Naomi Léon. The story is about a pair of siblings, Naomi and Owen, whose biological mother suddenly reappears after abandoning them at their grandmother’s house. You can read my review of it here; you’ll see that it’s not one of my favorite books, but it’s alright for what it’s for.

The story essentially follows Naomi’s growth from a nearly silent character to one who roars. Again, talking about not talking is great. Some people think it’s bad to be quiet, as Naomi’s mother does, but for some of us, it’s just a hurdle that must be leapt. It’s not bad to be quiet, and I think that the media often sends messages that those of us who talk more have more personality and/or are more interesting. I think that quiet people should be acknowledged more, and that’s why I find this book necessary to this list.

The final book on my list is the heartbreaking middle-grade debut, Missing Okalee.

I almost cried while reading this book. As you guys all know, I have a younger sister who is very dear to me, and I felt that Okalee’s independence was quite common of younger sisters and very personable.

I did a review on this book that I will clip from to explain the plot of this book:

Missing Okalee is a heartbreaking middle grade novel about friendship, loss, and healing from grief. When protagonist Phoebe and her younger sister, Okalee, go out to the river nearby their house to carry out their springtime tradition of crossing it holding hands, Okalee is swept away from Phoebe, leaving Phoebe feeling responsible for Okalee’s drowning. Telling her parents what happens begins a lie that Phoebe never meant to tell. Suddenly everything is confusing and frustrating and Phoebe doesn’t know how to tell the truth without making her mother, who has always loved Okalee more than Phoebe, hate her. The grief and guilt of losing her sister causes Phoebe to no longer be able to do what she enjoys most: sing. But she needs to sing the solo at school; it’s the first time she’s been chosen for the solo in middle school. –clipped from my Goodreads review

In addition to being emotional, painful, and empathetic, this book had some very Christian themes of integrity and friendship. I really enjoyed the aspect of messiness in the book; Phoebe eventually becomes so grief-stricken, she loses control of her emotions and does things that she can’t regret in her numbness. I really don’t think this is something captured well in the media; it’s always just: “I miss her so much.” then “I know, dear. It’s hard for me, too.” But this book went all in. There is so much to talk about, and I do for suggest for parents to sample this book before reading it to children under ten.

That concludes my list of Mental Health Awareness Month picks. No matter how old you are, the books will make you sigh sadly, smile remorsefully, and listen or read fully. Please keep in mind that we are called to comfort those who are in pain (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). These books will help you to be equipped to understand those who you meet and those who you know.

Thanks so much for spending your valuable time reading this post. This is a topic very close to my heart, and I hope that you let these books touch yours. If you are interested in more posts like this, be sure to subscribe; for the remainder of May, I will be releasing mental health-related posts. God loves you, guys. “Do your best, look your best, and be your best.”

‘K, bye!

#mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmonth #middlegradebooks