When Stories Hold the Hard Things: Using Books to Navigate Big Feelings
When Stories Hold the Hard Things: Using Books to Navigate Big Feelings By Katie Jones, Editor | The Young Listener’s Chronicle There is a moment every parent knows. Your child stands before you, trembling with a feeling so vast it seems to swallow them whole—a cyclone of anger, a flood of tears, a freeze of anxiety. In that moment, our instinct is to talk. To explain, to soothe, to fix. But often, words fail us. Our logic meets their storm, and neither finds a way through. This is where a story can become a bridge. For generations, wise parents and educators have used tales as tools to explore landscapes too dangerous or complex for a child to enter alone. A story doesn’t lecture a child about fear; it gives them a character to walk beside through a dark forest. It doesn’t scold about selfishness; it lets them witness the loneliness of a creature who hoards everything. In the safe territory of “once upon a time,” a child can process the very real...
