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Launch of new Mood-boosting Book list for young people

Today we’re launching a new list of Mood-boosting Books chosen by young people. The titles were suggested by Reading Hack groups, young library volunteers and visitors to the Southbank’s 2016 YA Weekender. The final list was decided by young people from Shoreditch Library.

The young people recommended books according to their own personal experience or suggested reads that had been uplifting for others. The full list can be seen here, and below are just some of the highlights.

“Very reassuring and encouraging”

Lots of the titles recommended on the list were chosen because they reminded readers that they were never alone. A young person from Essex Libraries recommended Finding Cherokee Brown by Siobhan Curham because it ‘reinforces that it is possible to live well with mental health issues’.

Two Patrick Ness titles were also recommended on the same basis. More than This was recommended by a young person at the Southbank YA weekender because it ‘taught me that I shouldn’t be ashamed to write about people like me’. Patrick Ness’s The Rest of Us Just Live Here was also put forward for showing the reader that ‘you don’t have to be a YA hero to be a cool dude’.

“Puts a smile on your face, whatever your age”

Some of the titles on the list were literary classics, recommended simply for their ability to always make you smile. Paddington Bear by Michael Bond was chosen by a young person at Essex Libraries for its ability to ‘put a smile on your face, whatever your age’. Roald Dahl’s Matilda was recommended for being ‘one of the funniest, most heart-warming books you will ever read’.

The whole of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling was also recommended multiple times, with young people saying that ‘picking up Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and reading even just the first chapter never fails to make me happy!’

Get involved

Read the full Mood-boosting Book list for young people here.

Recommend your own Mood-boosting Book. You can email [email protected] or share your suggestions on Twitter using #moodboostingbooks

See more Mood-boosting Book lists on the Reading Well website.

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