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Bessie Bump Gets a New Family

Summary: Storybook for young children about a turtle whose parents separate.

Description: Bessie Bump Gets a New Family aims to  help adults and children find positive solutions to their problems that can not only help them in childhood but throughout their life. The author uses the story of a young turtle named Bessie to reflect how children can feel when parents separate. In this illustrated children's book, children can learn that they are not alone, and that all problems can be worked out.

Author Amberley Meredith is a psychologist and an alternative therapies healer who has worked with children and their families for over a decade.

For more information about the book and to purchase, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/BessieBumpGetsANewFamily.html

  • Subject:
    Parenthood
  • Levels:
    Primary- Key stage 1&2
  • Type:
    Professional publication
  • Suggested use:
Current rating: 5

1 reviews

Rachael Cooper, Specialist Advisory teacher 21 Oct 2010 06:44 Report comment

The picture book ‘Bessie Bump gets a new family’ could be shared with KS1 pupils if they want to discuss the issue of family break up. There is quite a lot of text but the language used is simple, so some KS2 pupils would be able to access the book independently. There are a lot of issues relating to family break up covered in this book and different behaviours or feelings experienced by the main character Bessie could be focused on during different discussions with children over several sessions.

The book encourages pupils to explore their emotions in response to difficult situations. It encourages sharing of emotional awareness with promotes good communication within school.

It may be useful to have a teacher’s guide, as the author is a psychologist, alongside this book to help teachers, support assistants and parents share this book appropriately with a child. Discussion prompts and key questions along with support helplines may be a useful addition to the book.

Using the character of a fish helps avoid stereotypical behaviours within the book. Although with Bessie being a girl and crying this book may not be so accessible to boys. The book encourages staff and pupils to reflect on difficult situations that may be going on in children’s lives and may be impacting on their school life. An important lesson for us all to be reminded of in the busy world of school.

I might use this book in conjunction with discussions about problem solving, how to ask for help and who to ask for help in school. Staff would need to be careful that particular pupils were not able to cope with a conversation about this topic, if events in their own lives were too current and they felt the book was being targeted at them, if they had not actively been seeking help or parents hadn’t asked to support with their child.

The language used in the book makes it more suitable for KS1 pupils, with terminology such as mummy and daddy. However children with SEN up to and including KS3 may benefit from the simplicity of the language and the clear facial emotions displayed in the illustrations.

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