Recommended Books on Domestic Violence and Abuse for Young Children

Little Mouse Finds a Safe Place (Fiction) by Ann Dix (Author) and Jacqueline Quinn (Illustrator)

Little-Mouse Finds a Safe Place is a children's storybook designed to help professionals support children who have experienced and witnessed domestic violence and abuse, and also contains guidelines on the key issues and how to use the story with individuals and groups. Little-Mouse is confused and anxious. He liked his new Dad and his Mum says everything is OK, but Little-Mouse is seeing things and hearing things that make him feel really worried. Little-Mouse doesn't know what to do, or who to talk to. When things get even worse, Little-Mouse suddenly finds himself needing to make a decision. What will Little-Mouse do? Will he and his Mum get away? Will Little-Mouse ever feel safe again?

When children have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse and violence, they are frequently left with many confusing and worrying emotions. They can feel responsible, guilty, ashamed, angry with themselves and their parents, frightened and insecure. They need to be enabled by empathic adults to safely express and understand their experience, and to work through and make sense of their feelings.

Little Mouse Finds a Safe Place is a children's storybook designed to help professionals support children through this process, written by therapist Ann Dix, who has more than 20 years experience of working with children and families who have experienced domestic abuse. Beautifully and subtly illustrated by Jacqueline Quinn (herself a therapist), the book is designed to be read with children; it also contains guidelines and resources for professional and parental use. Both a genuinely thrilling and moving story for children, Little-Mouse also concisely conveys many important psychological messages which will be evident to professionals working in this field. It has been approved and 'road-tested' by both groups of children and individual children, who have helped develop the story. Little-Mouse genuinely conveys the tension and anguish of children in this situation, as well as providing a safe and contained ending that can open discussion with children and enable them to begin their own journey of healing with the adult alongside.

Looking for something more specific? Get something more tailored with our personalised book prescriptions within 48 hours.

You might also find it helpful to explore yours or your child's feelings in a bibliotherapy session or learn some bibliotherapy techniques to help you process these feelings by completing our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course, Children's Bibliotherapy Skills Online Course or read our book Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading.

A big hello and thank you for reading! Passionate about literature, psychology, and life I launched Book Therapy as an alternative form of therapy using the power of literature. I train mental health professionals, librarians, teachers as well as readers on using bibliotherapy in their own work through our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course. We also curate reading lists/personalised book prescriptions for clients based on their individual needs. This is our signature personalised reading service.

You can also check out Book Therapy’s other free reading lists and A- Z of book prescriptions (covering both fiction and non-fiction). These suggest books based on your existing life situation (e.g. anxiety, job change, relationship heartache) as well as interests (e.g memoir, historical fiction, non-fiction, crime etc). There’s also a Children’s A — Z of Book Prescriptions. Feel free to check out the blog for more literary gems. There’s also a post on my personal story of how I entered the world of bibliotherapy and book curation.

In this role, I have had the opportunity to publish two books called Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading and The Happiness Mindset, and write various literary essays and pieces for newspapers and magazines. I have undertaken bibliotherapy workshops for The United Nations, various libraries in New York and corporate organisations in the UK and US. My book recommendations have featured in the Guardian, Marie Claire, NBC News, Asian Voice, New York Observer, Sydney Telegraph and various other publications. If you are a parent you might enjoy a podcast I’ve recorded with speech and language therapist Sunita Shah on Raising A Reader & Storyteller. And if you’d like to connect, email me at bijal@booktherapy.io or www.booktherapy.io.

Book Therapy is a participant in the Amazon EU, US and Canada Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.ca