Children Heard & Seen (CH&S) is a charity that works exclusively with the children of prisoners, often the unheard victims of parental crime. Give a Book has been working closely with CH&S since 2020 after first supporting them with Reading PALS.
We have set up and provided books for a number of reading projects with CH&S and we send regular book parcels throughout the year. These consist of specially curated titles to help provide comfort, support, and escapism to children who may be experiencing the distressing and complex feelings surrounding parental imprisonment.
We carefully research and find books that may help those struggling with fear or anxiety, grief or separation, or simply to let families know that someone is thinking of them.
Some of our favourite picture book titles include (from left to right): While we Can’t Hug by Eoin McLaughlin, Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival, Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena, The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers, and The Invisible String by Patrice Karst.
These books can all be purchased through our Bookshop List when you click the link or the image above, which earns Give a Book a small commission to support more projects.
Projects & Book Bundles we’ve provided for Children Heard & Seen include:
- Books for Valentine’s Day wellbeing parcels,
- Book Bundles for children struggling with fear and anxiety after witnessing a parent’s arrest,
- Author Visits & Workshops,
- Page to Picture,
- Making it Up, adapted for children and run by David Kendall,
- Teddy Bear’s Picnic, CH&S’s summer activities weekend.
“Thank you for The Invisible String book, to whoever has been thinking of us. Today my middle son remembered and he told me he was missing me and he was thinking of the invisible string.”
“The books were great! They were so colourful and bright, the boys really enjoyed looking through them. I also love how most of them help them with understanding some of the feelings they may be feeling.”
“We received the Philip Pullman ‘His Dark Materials’ bundle and I’m so grateful. The children in mind for these are so fantastic and deserving; they are incredible readers and their single mums struggle a lot with everything. This means the world for both them and us!”
