Silver Matilda

The ‘Get to Know Me’ series is aimed at children with additional or Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) needs and the those who support them. classroom. Developed by child psychologist Louise Lightfoot and illustrated by Catherine Hicks, the resources in this series include activities specific to anxiety, depression and OCD. This book, Silver Matilda, has been designed to support the individual child but also to be used in whole class teaching, to encourage an empathetic and inclusive environment.

In this book, we meet Matilda, a bird with silver feathers known for her beauty and graceful flight. The story follows Matilda as she loses her bright feathers and ashamed, hides away from the world until one day an owl comes and sits with her. The owl shows Matilda empathy and stays with her whilst she recovers and watches as she becomes stronger through her experience.

This book was written with children with depression in mind, providing an opportunity to relate to Matilda’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours and experiences. However, children with a range of needs may benefit from the story. The book is written in a narrative style, so it does not use diagnostic labels and is not intended for this purpose. Instead the focus is on creating a common language which children can understand and use to make sense of how they are feeling.

A practitioner guidebook (ISBN 9780815349433) and draw-along version (ISBN 9780815349464) are also available.