Book Club - Davina Bell’s What to Do When You’re Not Sure What to Do

Davina Bell is a children's book editor and an author of books for all ages. Her picture books include All the Ways To Be Smart and All of the Factors of Why I Love Tractors. Her debut young adult novel, The End of the World is Bigger than Love, won the 2021 CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers. 

Davina is also the author of two incredible books for young readers that I like to turn to for a little inspiration. They are What to Say When You’re Not Sure What to Say, and the recently released What to Do When You’re Not Sure What to Do.

Both What to Say and What to Do introduce children (and adults) to simple things they can share that promote kindness and inclusivity. Each page is its own little world; containing a simple aphorism and picture that gently unfolds a story about how to approach, deal with or overcome some of the difficult moments in our lives.

The book is designed to show children that while the world often looks scary, and is full of new and unfamiliar things, that we can take it one step at a time and best of all we can approach it with a helping hand from a friend.

These books are gorgeously illustrated by Hillary Jean Tapper. Hillary’s illustrations craft whole narratives in a single image. The pictures feature a revolving cast of children moving in and out of each other's lives; offering support and a smile at all the right moments.

What to Do and What to Say are the sort of books that invite sharing. They read best when sat alongside someone else to explore the story and discover things in the pictures. 

Each moment is both general and specific and invites memory and empathy as we come together over moments in our near or distant past.

I haven’t got much more to say about these books. They are such that they need to be discovered but I can assure you that they almost certainly contain something you’re looking for right now and some words that will help you along, even if they can’t make everything right.

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