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Secret, Secret ISBN: 9781785920424
Law, Daisy
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016
This beautifully crafted picture book with jewel-like, exotic illustrations is a gentle way of talking to children about different kinds of secrets, ones that should be told and ones that can be safely kept. 'Secret, secret. Keep or tell? Stay hush-hush or shout and yell.' The child and his/her green and purple rabbit toys move through landscapes strange and remarkable, sad and happy, big and little, new and old, loud and quiet, dark and bright - scary too, and the question at the end is, 'What would you do?' While the book is about all kinds of secrets, it is inevitable that child abuse is a big part of what it is about. Never mentioned as such, the pictures and the text both show the child in situations that are worrying. Pages at the end of the book explain to parents how to use the story and what to do if a child discloses abuse - the 'Safe Report'. There is emphasis on how to approach a child who is telling his or her own secret about, for instance, bed wetting, or having broken something, the importance of helping a child the right way if they have been bullied or threatened by friends, even more so if the secret involves a family member. The sensitiveness with which these things must be handled is accentuated, and it is certainly a good book to use in quite specific circumstances to help along discussion - could be useful in schools too. Available from Amazon, from good book shops, and from the publisher: www.jkp.com.
Age: 3+