Pie Corbett’s Comforting Reads

This selection of books, carefully selected by literacy expert Pie Corbett, will help you:

• expand your library to include a selection of reassuring reads for children in Years 1–6;
• immerse children in uplifting stories and poems that will help them to navigate their stresses and worries;
• engage every child with a selection of picture books, fiction, poetry and funny stories.

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I often think about where I acquired the reading bug. I suspect that it was the bedtime story, where I snuggled up with Mum or Dad. For me, reading is associated with a loving time, sharing a great story or poem. I still have that habit. In fact, I cannot fall asleep without slipping into that other world where whatever I face – dragons or disasters – all will be well.

There has never been a time in education that has been more pressing for the snuggly read; for children to get lost in poems, adventures, great pictures and funny stories. I’ve selected the sort of comforting reads that I would want to be armed with if I were a parent, carer or teacher. Books we could get lost in; books that put their pages around us; books that can be trusted to heal. Children, like all of us, need time in the day to forget their worries and sadness; they need time to be comforted; time to enter that other world where villains are defeated and even the most harrowing event is overcome.
Pie Corbett, Literacy expert