Books like A Terrible Thing Happened: A Story for Children Who Have Witnessed Violence or Trauma
By Margaret M. Holmes
For a child carrying feelings they don't have words for yet, this book offers a gentle way in — showing that the stomachaches, bad dreams, and sudden anger all make sense, and that talking helps. Quiet, tender, and reassuring — sad in places, but never frightening, with a steady sense of safety underneath.
A wave sweeps ten rubber ducks off a cargo ship, scattering them across the sea to meet a dolphin, a whale, and other creatures, while the last little duck drifts alone until nightfall.
A little boy named Dave loses his beloved stuffed dog, Dogger, and is heartbroken — until Dogger turns up at the school summer fair, with someone else buying him first.
A zookeeper spends every day visiting his animal friends — racing the tortoise, sitting with the shy penguin, reading to the owl — until he wakes up too sick to come, and they decide to visit him instead.
A young turtle is afraid of the dark inside his own shell, so he sets off asking other animals for help, only to discover that a bird, a polar bear, and a duck all have fears of their own.
A seven-year-old girl flees war in Lebanon and must adjust to a strange new life in Canada, struggling with a language she doesn't understand and everyday moments that suddenly feel frightening.
A small boy who lives next door to a nursing home learns that his elderly friend Miss Nancy has lost her memory, and sets out to discover what a memory actually is so he can help her find hers again.
A mouse who loves school more than almost anything brings a purple plastic purse to class, gets it taken away by her teacher, and lashes out before learning how to make things right.
Four small animals — a yellow bird, a white dog, an orange fox, and a brown squirrel — each face a little setback in one day, until something good turns things around for all of them.
A little girl adores her shiny yellow rain boots until the day she discovers her feet have grown too big to fit inside them anymore.
A young polar bear's fishing trip with Grampa Bear is interrupted by pesky otters, sparking a gentle conversation about why we're called to love others — even when they're hard to love.
A true portrait of an enslaved man in 1800s South Carolina who became a master potter, shaping massive clay jars and carving his own poetry into them despite the world telling him he had no voice.
A boy wakes up with gum in his hair and just knows it's going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day — and from breakfast to bedtime, he's right.
