Bibliotherapy :

A technique that uses

Literature
to
Heal
by Corinne Vong Siu Phern, Ph.D
Bibliotherapy (Dan Ouzts):
• If children who are experiencing
difficulties identify with a character
in a story who has similar problems
and have solved them, they may
see alternatives for themselves.
• Thus , a good book may assist in
the development of a child’s
emotions , and attitudinal barriers to
learning.
HISTORY OF BIBLIOTHERAPY
 a “new science” of treating
illnesses through literature
 adapted by educators in a
preventive or developmental
capacity
 through literature, most
children can be helped
BENEFITS OF BIBLIOTHERAPY
• provides emotional support : children
know they are not alone in their feelings
or the first to encounter a particular
problem or challenge
• through characterisation in stories,
pupils can discuss sensitive issues
openly, and express compassion as a
group, while safeguarding private fears
and troubles
BENEFITS OF BIBLIOTHERAPY
Pupils will be able to:
• understand and cope with problems better
• generate constructive resolutions
• develop personal and social judgment
• increase social sensitivity, respect for others,
and the ability to take a variety of
perspectives
• gain access to the many questions and issues
of life in books available to them
BENEFITS OF BIBLIOTHERAPY
• The right books can offer possible solutions
to problems that create children’s inner
turmoil
• Books allow teachers to intervene with
children who are experiencing stress and
crises in their lives
• Topics for books include self-concept,
perseverance, relationships, social values,
friendship, facing adversity, family values,
death, illness or disease, and war (Ouzts,
1998)
Multicultural Elements: Carole Cox
 Multicultural literature taught in classrooms
introduce young readers to characters with whom
they have had little experience or do not share a
common background, but can begin to understand
and appreciate them
Multicultural literature should present strong
positive images of diverse groups of people that are
under-represented or have been marginalised in the
past
Each character, while representing specific details of
a culture, should also be shown as a unique individual
rather than a generalised stereotype.
Multicultural Elements: African American
Literature (Sabrina A. Brinson)
 An analyses of books on Africans-Americans
depict them stereotypically as a natural thief, a
flunky happily steppin’ and fetchin’, a pitied
simpleton, a gargantuan bully, a poor, helpless
inept (having no skill/clumsy) underdog,
scared senseless, a shakin’ and a quakin’ in his
shoes, and illustrated in charcoal black with
out-of control hair
Multicultural Elements:
Asian American Literature
 The Chinese characters are identically
caricatured as foreigners who look alike,
illustrated with yellow skin, having slanted eye
slits, wearing “coolie” clothing (associated with
the subjugation of the underpaid Chinese
labourers in the United States), who chose to
live together in quaint communities in the
midst of large cities and cling to outworn, alien
customs, and women portrayed as “China dolls”
(men were of higher status than women)
Multicultural Elements:
Hispanic American Literature

 Hispanics are the Spanish-speaking people from

the Carribean, Central and South America,
Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain
 Stereotyped as impoverished, uneducated farm
workers, and illustrated as barefooted, wearing
a wide-brimmed hat and a serape (a shawl or
blanket worn as a cloak by people from Latin
America), snoozing under a cactus or riding a
burro (a small donkey used as a pack animal)
Multicultural Elements:
Native American Literature
 Native Americans are the descendants of the
500 or more tribes of the indigenous people of
North America
 Stereotyped as either cruel savages, or docile,
childlike people totally dependent on the
mission or reservation for their existence, with
images of buckskin (a hair coat color of horses,
referring to a colour that resembles certain shades of
tanned deerskin) and feathers, when in reality
Native Americans would defend their homeland from
invaders, just like any other American would , if they
were to be invaded by foreigners
USING
MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
 What is the advantage of using
multicultural literature?
 What are some of the
challenges of using multicultural
literature?
WHAT MULTICULTURAL
LITERATURE ACHIEVES
• It opens one’s eyes
• It enables one to find oneself
• It opens one’s mind
• It’s one’s responsibility to know
such literature
MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
OPENS ONE’S EYES
How does multicultural literature
• show diversity, and analyse biases
in the classroom?
• enable one to be more sensitive
towards others of
underrepresented cultures?
MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
HELPS ONE FIND ONESELF

In what way
does multicultural literature
help you
find yourself?
MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
HELPS OPEN ONE’S MIND
How does multicultural literature
open one’s mind on issues such as
 racism / racial polarisation?
 cultural diversity and tolerance?
 variety of cultures, peoples and
disabilities?
Thus, how does multicultural
literature :
 acknowledge and celebrate
diversity?
 dissolve stereotypes?
 educate one about the culture of
another and the role that culture
plays in society?
Bibliotherapy:
Addressing Children’s Concerns
 Children, to a greater extent than
adults, neither possess the capabilities to
process and digest their feelings by
themselves, nor the communications skills
to convey them to others
 The child’s world is a world of egocentrism
and intense, regulated emotion
 Kids live in a world of metaphors and
imagery, of fantasy and magic, colour,
brightness or darkness
Bibliotherapy:
Addressing Children’s Concerns
 It is through stories that children’s mind are
open to new ways of thinking about
themselves and their world
 The egocentrism of children makes it natural
for them to identify with the characters of
stories i.e. the child identifies with the hero
of the story : his journey, tribulations and
courage to continue
 Re-reading the story helps the child
assimilate the message
HOW BIBLIOTHERAPY MAY BE
CARRIED OUT (Dan Ouzts) :
• Before reading, the teacher sets a specific
purpose for the book reading activity by
children.
• During the guided reading of the book, the
teacher sets expectations, guides the
discussion, and relates the text to children’s
experiences, and notes unusual behaviour
displayed by any of the children.
• After reading the book, the teacher evaluates
its impact on the children and documents any
changes in their attitudes or behaviour.
Bibliotherapy:
Strategies for Presentation
 Using books to spark off discussion
o Use the book as a catalyst for discussion
- Identify the problem
- Encourage children to brainstorm
solutions
- Examine advantages and disadvantages
of various solutions, then choose one
that seems workable
- Explore and implement the solution
- Evaluate the success of the solution
Bibliotherapy:
Strategies for Presentation
 Inspiring independent reading
through book talks
o Introduce the book title for each book,
provide a glimpse into the character/plot
elements to inspire independent reading
o Pupils may need some time after the
talk to examine the books, determine
length or reading level, how interesting it
is.
Bibliotherapy:
Strategies for Presentation
 Critical literacy : addressing broad
issues
- building thinking skills that enable
students to consider all viewpoints,
respect differences, and become more
self-aware
- e.g. reading a novel of a child/of another
culture, of a child who has lived through
the war etc.
Bibliotherapy:
Strategies for Presentation
 Transformative Reading : Reader’s
Theater
- reading that transforms
- a dramatic adaptation of any story/scene
from a novel
- students simply read aloud the words of
their assigned character, verbally acting
out the story/scene for the entire class
Bullying and bibliotherapy
How does the use of children’s
literature
increase empathy and
help students
cope with bullying?
Using Bibliotherapy to Address
Bullying:
 Pupils identify with characters
and/or events in the story
 Pupils become emotionally involved
and express their feelings in a safe and
structured setting, through discussion,
writing, artwork, or other activities
 Pupils imagine possible solutions to
the issues in the story, and become
aware of ways that their own problems
might be addressed or solved
Bibliotherapy:
Developmental Appropriateness
 how to use popular literature for
developmental appropriateness
e.g.
nurses used books to help
children with short stature and
diabetes discuss their
feelings/ailments and
cope with their challenges
Bibliotherapy:
Developmental Appropriateness
 e.g.
A book on divorce can help a
child cope with how their life will
change after mom and dad
separate.
Bibliotherapy:
Developmental Appropriateness
 e.g.
A child reacting to the shock of
going to foster care may gain
some insight by reading a book
about a similar child going to
foster care who learns to adjust
to this major event in their life.
Bibliotherapy: Choice of Books
 Short stories: Fiction

o Children will develop sympathy for a

character having problems.

o Understanding a character in a fiction

book can help a child cope with their
own problems.
Bibliotherapy: Choice of Books

 Biographies: Non Fiction

o Has characters that mirror or are
similar to a child which can assist
him/her better cope with issues e.g.

a difficult foster home situation,

caring for a sick family member etc.
Bibliotherapy: Choice of Books
 Fairy Tales
o Give a simple portrayal of universal problems
and fears that children confront.

o Encourage children to use their imaginations

as a strategy for problem solving.

o The part of a fairy tale that frightens or

shocks children could be left out, in order to
help them, rather than intensify their problem.
Bibliotherapy: Choice of Books

 Picture Books
o A delightful way for a child to enjoy a
story
o Children are able to project their feelings
and projections onto the books’
characters, in order for them (the
children) to reveal their own problems.
Realistic Fiction: Problem Novels
– A product of the 1960s
– Focuses on a single issue of immediate
concern to young people, such as divorce,
first date, puberty, moving, teen pregnancy,
drugs, homosexuality
– Family is usually depicted as helpless or
part of the problem--a reflection of the
perceived breakdown of the modern family
structure
Themes for books :
1. Nontraditional families
• Children live with one parent (because
the other had died)
• A family whose furniture and belongings
have been destroyed by an apartment fire
• Child coping with his parents’ divorce,
being the new boy in school, and finding
his own place in the world
Themes for books :
1. Nontraditional families
• Children living in blended families with
a parent and step-parent dealing with
issues such as adjusting to the divorce
or death of a parent, resentment in
sharing their mother or father with the
new spouse, dislike for the stepparent,
and the presence of unwanted new
siblings.
Themes for books :
3. Abandoned families
• A child abandoned by his mother –
learning that he can be alone without
being lonely, and that his dad is not
without emotion after all
• A child abandoned by both parents
discovers that it was actually the
grandparent who had always cared for
him like a parent
Themes for books :
4. Friendship
• When best friends must part when one has to
leave town
• When a child moves into a new neighbourhood
thinking no one will ever understand her, until
she meets a one-of-a-kind friend in a class bully
• A friendship between a girl who is unique and
unconventional, and a boy, that changes his
imagination and learning, and which makes the
him disbelieving and numb, when learning of
her sudden death.
Tutorial Task for TSLB 3093:
1. Divide yourselves into 3 groups.
2. In a powerpoint, explain how you would use
bibliotherapy in your classroom to address
an issue that may be troubling your pupils.
3. Your presentation needs to include :
a) Multicultural elements
b) Developmental appropriateness
c) Choice of book
4. Expect feedback from your listeners.