If you didn’t already know, empathy is simply the ability to understand or share the feelings of others.  Empathy and the ability to make a connection with others has never been more needed than it is now.  In the strange times we are currently living in, the importance of empathy cannot be underestimated.

Books and reading are an amazing way to develop our empathy as they offer a deep insight into how other people are thinking or feeling.  Put simply, reading allows us to see and understand the world through the eyes of others, making us kinder human beings overall.  Perhaps you all might have read a certain book called Wonder?  Wonder told from the perspective of many different characters, providing glimpses into their behaviour and exploring the impact our actions can have on others.  It helps us empathise and understand there are many reasons why people do what they do.

You can find out more about empathy and reading at Empathy Lab

In the meantime, here are my suggestions to read for empathy, all featuring messages of compassion, inclusion and acceptance.  Add your own in the comments.

1. Wonder 

I mentioned it above, but it is the most engaging and uplifting tale.  Auggie is a normal, smart, funny, Star Wars loving kid who just happens to have a severe physical deformity.  The story of his first year at a real school, after being home schooled since he was young, really is the best way to start building your empathy.

2. Heartstopper

This is a graphic novel but it tells a beautiful story of first love at an all boys grammar school.  Charlie and Nick are very different but they become friends before realising their feelings for each other are deeper than first thought.  They must navigate these uncharted waters against a background of homophobic bullying and all the other small stories that run through their lives.

3. The Boy at the Back of the Class

The story of 4 friends and their empathy for the new boy in class – a refugee from Syria.  Our narrator does not have much of his own, he is from a single parent family that struggles with making ends meet, yet he makes a huge effort to befriend the new boy.  A book about kindness and not judging people before you know them.

4. Kick the Moon

Can you imagine what it is like to grow up as a Muslim boy who likes comic books in a tough community, where bullying, peer pressure and gang life are commonplace?  Kick the Moon will take you there with the story of Ilyas and let you share his hopes and feeling and fears and beliefs that all make him who he is and give him the courage to stand up to the bullies and the gangs.  One for older readers.

5. Once 

This is the first in a series of books by Morris Gleitzmann following the life of a young Polish boy called Felix as he searches for his parents during the Second World War.  Narrated by Felix himself the novel is hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time as we see the horrors of war through the eyes of a naturally optimistic 10-year-old boy.

6. Turtles all the way down

The most recent book from John Green deals with a teenager called Aza as she unravels a mystery and fights her own battle with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Excellent insight into mental health issues as the main characters struggles are based on Green’s own lived experiences.  See also Am I Normal Yet? By Holly Bourne

7. Booked

Written in verse, this is the story of Nick, a 12-year-old football star who finds himself having to deal with his parents’ separation, school bullies and an injury that takes him off the pitch.  This book has something everyone should identify with – school, family drama, fast paced football matches.

Enjoy!

It is a tough time just now and books are a great way to lose yourself when reality isn’t as good as it could be.  Take a look at this list of books to escape with and please comment with your own suggestions!

Books for escapism

1. The House with Chicken Legs

How would you feel if the house you lived in had legs and would suddenly get up in the middle of the night and move you somewhere else?  That’s what happens to Marinka, the girl in this book, at least 3 times a year.  As we are all stuck in our own houses, I wonder where they would take us if they could do what Marinka’s house does?

2. Howl’s Moving Castle

Sophie is a hard-working girl who incurs the wrath of the Wicked Witch of the Waste and is turned in to an old crone.  She goes to work for a Wizard called Howl in a magical castle.  Howl’s castle door is a portal to 4 different places and magical adventures ensue as Sophie and Howl battle demons and witches and try to return Sophie to normal.  If you could open your front door to 4 different places, where would they be?

3. My Hero Academia 

This is a Japanese Manga series where 80% of the world’s population have some sort of special ability – known as “quirks”.  These quirks have led those people with certain quirks to become professional heroes.  However, the main character of this story is one of the 20% who doesn’t have a quirk and the story is about how he defies the odds to emulate his idols and try to become the greatest hero of them all.  Fun and full great messages about working hard and believing in yourself.

4. A Series of Unfortunate Events 

A dark and mysterious series of books that will take you to another world, one that is like ours but isn’t, one where the Baudelaire children must save themselves from the murderous intentions of their relative and guardian, the evil Count Olaf

5. Magnus Chase trilogy

Imagine you think you are an orphan only to discover one day that you are actually the son of a Norse God? That’s what happened to Magnus Chase and he is thrown into all sorts of adventures.  You know Loki and Thor from some very famous movies but there is so much more from Norse Mythology to get lost in with these books.

6. Mortal Engines Quartet 

It is a long, long time in the future, and after a terrible war that ravaged earth, cities have learned to survive by installing huge engines and wheels and driving about the land ‘eating’ smaller towns and suburbs.  This is a massive, sprawling epic series of books as you imagine the sheer scale of these cities moving across the land.  The main characters are Tom and Hester and both not your usual stereotypes of characters in adventure novels.  These books really do take you to another place altogether

7. To all the boys I’ve loved before 

Sometimes you just want to feel warm and snuggly and safe and have a happy ending.  This is definitely the story for that, it’s like a mug of hot chocolate in the shape of a book about teenage high school romance.  Lara Jean is a bright, intelligent heroine and you are rooting for her every step of the way.