Hi, I’m Dr. Shoshana Magnet. I teach educators, families, and mental health professionals tools to help children cope with their anxiety, grief, and other big feelings. I use picturebooks as teaching tools because they help both children and adults simultaneously to grasp complex psycho-emotional lessons like attuned listening, validation, and cognitive reframing. Picturebooks To Grow is rooted in a feminist approach to oppressive systems and their impact on mental health. 

“What is imagined affects what is possible".

- Jennifer Miller, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books (2022)

They’re never too old, and neither are you. By distilling complex emotional lessons into few words with pictures, picture books are a valuable form of knowledge for all ages. They do the difficult task of making challenging ideas easier to understand and share.

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View fullsize I have previously mentioned this book as being useful for children struggling with anxiety. It’s particularly helpful for children who are struggling to try new things following the endless COVID lockdowns. It is also so, so funny to children
View fullsize This book is written by Susin Nielsen, who also has written a lot of my favourite YA novels (she used to write for Degrassi). It features a cat who is the centre of her family, until the arrival of Darryl the dog. This book is funny, it features l
View fullsize Having a baby is magical, wonderful, and can also be sooooo boring. I personally found it very uncomfortable to be so bored and to have the endless circle of domestic work feel like a form of (neoliberally defined) unproductivity. This book does w
View fullsize Many years ago, I sat in an epic couples counselling session complaining about my erstwhile girlfriend. Why was she so last minute? Did everything have to be done by the seat of our pants? I remember the therapist saying: “isn’t it inte
View fullsize This book speaks to me deep in my heart as somebody who waited and waited and hoped beyond all measure for a baby, and who had a baby on my own. It speaks to some Indigenous understandings of babies choosing their parents while refusing any kind of
View fullsize There are lots of books in this genre (What Riley Wore and The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity are two other excellent books) but I love this book because it reminds us that a child’s courage in being who they are also serves as inspiratio
View fullsize Doesn’t everyone have moments they regret, including times in childhood where we were mean? This book explores the kind of casual cruelty that children engage in and then often regret. Maya arrives at school different from the other children
View fullsize Oh, weddings, those staples of love, class aspiration, and so many other complicated cultural meanings. Now that I’m married myself to the love of my life and can no longer claim the moral highground on this particular issue (sorry to you Lisa
View fullsize In this lovely and funny book, Johnny and his grandma are driving along when Johnny tells his grandma to pull over. He has seen a pheasant lying in a field. When Grandma nudges the pheasant gently with her foot, it's clear that she thinks the pheasan
View fullsize Meet Shoshana - the brains behind Picture Books to Grow! Dr. Shoshana Magnet is a mother of two as well as professor of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. She loves to share picture books that talk about big feelings and topics,