A study recently concluded that bookworms are generally more empathetic people, which definitely makes the case for getting your child reading at a young age.
Given the current political climate which has seen the Syrian War (and ensuing refugee crisis), the election of closed-border policy President Donald Trump and Brexit, maybe learning tolerance and an unprejudiced view of the world is just what the kids of today need.
Children's book authors certainly seem to think so, with a myriad of children's books published today promoting tolerance and acceptance.
Nadia Shireen's upcoming June release, The Cow who Fell to Earth (Puffin), is set on the premise of 'what it would feel like if you were new to this country and didn't know how to make yourself understood'. Born to Pakistani parents, Shireen's book is, as the title suggests, centred around a space cow that crash-lands to Earth without the language to communicate his predicament.
Robin Stevens is the author of the forthcoming novel The Guggenheim Mystery which features a protagonist with Asperger syndrome. Stevens said: “I feel that, although I was always a writer who was interested in empathy, in post-Brexit Britain I have more to say than ever about tolerance and openness as positive characteristics.”
Kate Milner tackled the refugee crisis directly in her book My Name is Not Refugee. Milner, a Cambridge student when she wrote the book, won the V&A Museum's Illustration Award in 2016 for her.
The plot follows a mother telling her son what will happen to them once they leave their war-torn country.
Milner told said that she drew inspiration from her own daughter, school teacher, and her conversations with students about the refugee crisis. She told the Independent:
"They didn’t understand what was being discussed in the news and she had nothing to show them," she told the Independent. "The book is a story which asks children from a safe, comfortable background to think about what it must be like to leave your home and make a journey into the unknown.”
In the story, the mother talks her son through a more positive view of their impending journey. She told "It doesn’t include the fear, the hunger, and the exhaustion which must be part of a refugee child’s real experience. You wouldn’t, though, would you?"
As The Bookseller reports, Cathy Cassidy's book Love from Lexie is an empathy-aimed response to issues like burgeoning homelessness and food poverty for families.
An increasing number of authors are working with Empathy Lab, a UK organisation set up to promote goodwill amongst children in what they see as an increasingly hostile climate. "In today’s divided world, the need for more empathy has never been more urgent. Helping children put empathy into action will reduce prejudice, and build a more caring society.
"The UK’s shocking post-Brexit rise in hate crimes has highlighted the urgency of educating children to enter into other people’s feelings."
The group lists a bevvy of well-known authors as supporters, such as Coraline author Neil Gaiman and Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Gaiman says, "In reading, you get to feel things; visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know.
"You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals."
Empathy Lab ran a pilot scheme in UK schools from November 2015 to June 2016 to promote their ethos. Its evaluation report positively found that as a result of the scheme,100 per cent of teachers from the pioneer schools reported impact on: children’s reading frequency and range; enjoyment of reading; wider vocabulary.
86 per cent report impact on more expressive writing; better speaking, listening and participating in discussions. 71 per cent reported on on better inference, prediction and deduction.
One Year 5 student said, "If you learn about empathy and read books that include it you get more from your reading. When I feel empathy in stories, I slow down; sometimes I stop and think so much more."
In one of the best-known passages from To Kill a Mockingbird, iconic patriarch Atticus Finch tells daughter Scout: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
TKAM was written in 1960 and set during the time of post-slavery Southern segregation. Although times have changed, maybe we should remember Atticus' words in 2017.
