Nervous about the new year ahead? There’s a book for that.
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Every August, the nightmare is the same. I’m in the school hallway and the passing bell has rung. I’m trying to open my locker, but the numbers on the little black disk swim around so that I can’t dial the combination. I keep at it, knowing that time is slipping away and I’m going to be late. Eventually, everyone else is in a classroom, and the clangs and bangs of my frantic attempts echo off the tiled walls.
It’s always a relief to wake up after a dream like that, but as the day goes on, the anxiety lingers in the back of my mind like a stain. Stress dreams are the subconscious mind pointing out issues that likely need addressing in our waking lives. Am I feeling unprepared? Exposed? Shameful? Once I identify my prevailing emotion, my go-to self-therapy is a bit of journaling followed by reading.
Picking up a novel in which a character undergoes struggles like my own always helps me feel like I’m not alone — and the way characters handle their challenges can even suggest possible solutions to mine. Here are my top book recommendations for someone nervous about the new school year.
Picture Books
The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi
The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn
Wemberley Worried, by Kevin Henkes
School’s First Day of School, by Adam Rex
I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, by Lauren Child
Middle Grade Books
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt
When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
All’s Faire in Middle School, by Victoria Jamieson
The First Rule of Punk, by Celia C. Pérez
Young Adult Books
Openly Straight, by Bill Konigsberg
Belzhar, by Meg Wolitzer
Truly Devious, by Maureen Johnson
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta
The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading, by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance
Adult Books
Villette, by Charlotte Brontë
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl
Carrie, by Stephen King
The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
Happy reading, and let the countdown to next June begin!