Today is #EmpathyDay and I am particularly delighted that Piccadilly Press have included ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ in their line-up to celebrate. And what a fantastic collection of books to be a part of!
I’ve always been drawn to the books Piccadilly publishes because they are stories that are full of heart. And that’s something that really matters to me as a reader and a writer.
As well as having books that are strong on empathy, I’ve also found that the people at Piccadilly are strong on empathy too. I have ME/CFS and it’s not always easy to juggle books, life and health, but the Piccadilly team have been incredibly supportive. And I can’t thank them enough for that.
In ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’, Tomas finds a strange tree at the bottom of his grandad’s garden. When he takes the funny fruit home he gets the shock and delight of his life when a tiny dragon hatches. His first reaction is that he is going to have ‘the coolest, most amazingest pet in the whole world.’ But Tomas quickly learns that Flicker is not just a thing to make him look cool. If you grow dragons you need to know how to look after them, and if you do that well, you’ll have a friend for life.
Empathy is at the heart of the story and something I wanted to run through all three books. It seems to me there is nothing more important than nurturing empathy. Because through empathy we move away from judging and towards kindness.
Check out some more wonderful titles from #EmpathyLabUK here.
And find some top tips on how to build a child’s empathy at the same time as helping them love reading here.
Comments