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Every Book Is a Big Conversation Starter: Using Stories to Navigate Life’s Tough Topics with Young Children

Young children have a way of asking big, unexpected questions, often at the moments adults feel least prepared to answer them. In this guest blog, Dr. Lauren Loquasto, a nationally recognized expert in early childhood education and child development, explores how books can serve as powerful tools for navigating tough, emotional conversations with young children. Drawing on insights she shared during her recent RIF webinar, Every Book Is a Big Conversation Starter, Dr. Loquasto offers practical guidance for parents and educators on using stories to create connection, understanding, and trust. 

To raise young children is to constantly expect the unexpected. The young child’s innate curiosity and limited exposure to the world can lead to unexpected questions or comments, often at the least opportune time. It might be the loud question asking about a stranger’s clothing, gender, or body type, or it could be a surprise question asking about where babies come from, about family diversity, or about a world terror event.  

When Big Questions Catch Adults Off Guard 

As much as we, as caring adults, try to shield children from the world, media exposure, overheard conversational snippets, and images seen on covers of magazines still permeate the lives of young children. When this prompts a surprise question or comment, we as adults are often uncomfortable because the topic is potentially emotional for us, may be frightening to try to explain, or we don’t know what the child can developmentally understand. In these moments of uncertainty or when we feel we need to share some tough information with a child, books can serve as the perfect bridge to have big conversations with little children. To be as prepared as possible for unexpected questions, check out a must-have for parents and teachers of young children, Big Conversations with Little Children. This book addresses 21 of the most common ‘big’ topics— death, chronic illness, substance use, divorce, community violence, and so much more.  

Why Books Are the Perfect Bridge for Tough Conversations 

Perhaps the situation is inverted, and you would like to probe to see what your child may have overheard or be experiencing, or perhaps you want support in how to open the dialogue to share something emotional with a child. For this, I would encourage you to pick up the Big Conversations with Little Children children’s book series. These six picture books tell fun engaging stories about fictional children yet do so in a way to create context for potentially emotional or heavy topics. One unique feature of the children’s books is that specific language is not used to keep the books broad and to avoid introducing new words which the child may not understand, or the family might not be ready to use yet. Instead, the back matter of each book includes four to five discussion questions that an adult can use with the child. These questions create opportunities for children to share their experiences, if relevant, ask questions if they have any, and can also help build reading comprehension skills. See below a complete listing of titles and the broad focus of each to know which titles are best for the children you teach or are raising. All of these titles can also be read purely for enjoyment.  

Books create an ideal backdrop to bond and connect with children, and now these books can also open doors of context and trust to have big conversations with little children as well.  

  • Big Conversations with Little Children: A comprehensive guide to answering young children’s big questions and being prepared for the responses children may provide.
  • Felix and the Picnic: A picture book about family transitions, including but not limited to divorce, separation, deployment, substance use in the home, incarceration
  • Liam Learns about Safety: A picture book about community upheaval, including but not limited to community violence, community unrest, acts of terrorism, war
  • Izzy and her Special Difference: A picture book about chronic illness in the child or others close to the child
  • Diya and the Goldfish: A picture book about death, which can be applied to death of a pet or a human in the child’s life
  • Cruz and the Garden: A picture book about natural disasters, including but not limited to hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires
  • Winter and the Sad Goodbye: A picture book about friendship transitions, including but not limited to moving, death, or school transition 

All of these titles can be found at GardenLearningStore.com or on Amazon.  

Biography:

Dr. Lauren Loquasto is a national leading expert in early childhood education and child development. As a well-published author, she also serves as the Chief Academic Officer for Goddard Schools and has worked in senior leadership roles for numerous other education companies.