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This systematic review aims to synthesize and analyze existing evidence on the practices of bibliotherapy in the educational setting. A systematic literature search was conducted using four leading databases. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to ensure the articles' relevance in the review. Articles that involved bibliotherapy or reading therapy for teachers, teacher candidates, students, and children were included in the review. All included studies were peer-reviewed and published between 2006 and 2021 to ensure credibility and relevance to present practices. A total of 35 articles were included in the review based on specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. These articles were focused on the following themes: perceptions and practices of bibliotherapy; socio-emotional outcomes; academic outcomes; self-esteem, resilience, hope, and mindfulness outcomes; and stress, trauma, anxiety, and depression outcomes. Perceptions and practices of bibliotherapy showed how teachers and teacher candidates saw the value of the practice but lacked training for it. Outcomes in various domains showed that bibliotherapy might be implemented for different goals, such as improving social skills, emotional awareness and expression, empathy, academic achievement, learning ability, self-esteem, resilience, hope, and mindfulness, as well as a reduction in aggressive behaviors, stress, depression, anxiety, and trauma effects. These findings highlight the utility of bibliotherapy in education as support for the academic, socio-emotional, and psychological development of various types of students. This systematic review's findings contribute to the literature gaps regarding the lack of a unified framework for bibliotherapy.

In January 2021 the author read "Hey, Kiddo" by Jarrett Krosoczka. The author connected on so many levels with this graphic novel memoir, and knew that it would speak to their students, as well. Krosoczka not only wrote "Hey, Kiddo," but he illustrated it, as well. The author states they knew the healing impact a book could have when a reader connected with characters, events, or themes. The author's high school houses the district's arts magnet school, and since the Inspire Grant proposal had an art focus, they reached out to the director of the magnet program. The author shared their ideas for working with the magnet classes to connect with students to participate in what would eventually become a multilayered event. The program was voluntary, and they ended up with approximately eighty students choosing to participate. The premise behind the grant was for students to know they weren't alone and to provide them with outlets for healing. The graphic novel format removed a literacy barrier and made the book accessible to students at many reading levels throughout the school. Once the books were delivered to students, small-group sessions with counselors were scheduled to take place two weeks out, allowing students time to read the book. Copies of the book were supplied to the school counselors, as well. The goal of the small groups was to provide students a safe place to discuss the emotional story and to process feelings and personal connections that arose from their reading. The grant also included a school visit with goats. Students of all grade levels, social groups, and ability levels sat side by side with staff to pet and groom the different animals. According to the author, they were one community healing together.

School counselors need creative interventions to engage students in small groups. With students' interests changing quickly, one thing that has remained constant has been a fascination with comic books. They offer an enjoyable and creative way to engage children with stories that resonate with them. Additionally, bibliotherapy is an accessible and easy to implement strategy for children of all ages. This article will discuss the utilization of a comic book in a superhero bibliotherapy group with a diverse group of fourth and fifth grade students from a Gestalt perspective.

This article investigates how picture books published in 2019 represent Autism to children, with special attention as to whether those representations overtly include terminology around autism or covertly present autistic characters. Although both overt and covert representations occur in children's literature, covert representation may or may not come to the attention of children. Overt and covert uses of language convey different elements of personhood to readers, portraying what we, the authors, feel is important. Our analysis of these four samples of 2019 picture books was framed by critical disability studies, labelling theory and camouflage and by developmental bibliotherapy, providing evidence that the distinction between overt and covert labelling can have influences on the perceptions of readers.

Mixed-race students have often been overlooked in research regarding racial identity development. Current research tends to focus on models of multiracial identity development and its implications for college instructors and support personnel, but very little research exists to identify the needs of multiracial students while they are in primary and secondary schools. For this reason, the literature review seeks to ask and possibly answer questions related to multiracial identity development and K-12 schooling. The literature review provided evidence to suggest mixed-race individuals experience monoracism and microaggressions towards their multiracial heritage both systemically and directly at school, in their communities, and within their families. There is a need for more direct support at school for healthy multiracial identity development among students; however, most school staff are ill-equipped to do this. Lastly, there needs to be more research conducted to determine the best practices for school staff to use to support healthy multiracial identity development.

This study explored how culturally relevant stories could be used to bolster the lay counselling competencies of teachers furthering their studies in an honours degree in learner support -- while working in schools with limited resources and at-risk children. One possible way of supporting teachers to be effective in the lay counselling role is to support them with access to counselling tools. To achieve this aim of providing teachers, functioning as lay counsellors, with supportive tools, 16 South African honours students/teachers voluntarily implemented the intervention called, Read-me-to-Resilience (Rm2R) (see http://readmetoresilience.co.za). A qualitative research approach was used employing a pre- and post-intervention evaluation design and, based on the draw-and-write technique for gathering data, the experiences of lay counsellors using the Rm2R intervention were analysed. Participating teachers reported that using the Rm2R intervention promoted a positive adjustment to the challenges associated with lay counselling. The findings suggest that such a ready-made intervention may have value in supporting postgraduate education students being trained as lay counsellors. Culturally appropriate training with similar ready-made interventions might be an appropriate way of capacitating teachers being trained as lay counsellors.

Studies in trauma healing and teaching ESL students have been done before. In addition, bibliotherapy has been used in educational and psychological disciplines. However, there are few studies that explore the use of bibliotherapy and trauma healing in ESL refugee students. My objective for this study was to explore bibliotherapy to see what experiences/stories surfaced from students' lives and what connections/reflections students made to the books we read in the bibliotherapy sessions. This was a qualitative single case study; I observed and worked with a group of ESL refugee students in an after-school program. However, for this study I followed the progress of one student over our bibliotherapy sessions. I used observations, interviews and artifacts analysis. Data was collected, triangulated and coded. I found out that the student Identified herself to some degree with the texts read during our bibliotherapy sessions. However, stories from past traumatic experiences surfaced during oral discussions but became more visible whenever she was writing.

Bibliotherapy is consisted of a combination of the Greek "biblion (book)" and "therapeia (therapy-healing)" which have become popular since the 20th century as one of the alternative therapy methods. It is used to make individuals identify themselves with the works they read through works of high literary and aesthetic value and make them powerful individuals in the spiritual direction by producing solutions to the problems they experience in this way. In other words, bibliotherapy can also be defined as bringing the right books to the individual at the right time. That is, the history of accepting the idea that books are good for man is very old. In this study, the importance of using biographies will be explained in one of the important alternative therapy methods, bibliotherapy. There are some criteria in the selection of books because they are the most important materials that form the basis of bibliotherapy. As it is known, the process is three dimensions as the advisee, book preference and consultant. However, it is not possible to use every work in bibliotherapy. It is important to use the works that are high in reality dimension and keeping a mirror on the problems of the individual in bibliotherapy. This process includes the works that will develop the imaginary world of the individual, as well as the works suitable for real life. As is known, the common point in biographies is not only the success that the person who wrote the biography has achieved, but also this person's struggle for reaching his goal is his patience and perseverance. As a result, in the process of bibliotherapy, reading the biographies that will increase the morale and motivation of the individual and develop self-confidence will contribute positively to the person. Moreover, the preference of the biographies of the positive role-model in the society will be the example for the individual.

Today it is critical to excite young people about mathematics in our high-tech STEM world we live in. Math teachers today need to embolden students to be confident in their ability to solve problems, to think and use their imaginations, to understand mathematical concepts, to be creative, and to see math as a human endeavor. The author feels that as students feel less anxious about, and more confident in their abilities to do math their performance will improve. The author has provided an in-depth literature review and offers background information on using children's literature to teach mathematics; sharing the methods and materials possible to incorporate such literature into such math instruction in a wide range of mathematics strands. The results of using such literature in the teaching of mathematics may help to lower math anxiety and pique students interest and confidence in math and the STEM fields. Teachers need to address this alarming problem and work toward developing mathematically confident young people for a world where Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields dominate the globe, using literature to teach mathematics can support and cultivate students' math confidence for a STEM world.

Research suggests developmental bibliotherapy has a transformative effect on participants (Adams & Pitre, 2000). Specifically, bibliotherapy has been shown to develop a reader's empathy towards others (Comer-Kidd & Castano, 2013) and positively influence a reader's attitude towards individual differences (Routel, 2009; Gavigan & Kurtts, 2010). Through the constructs of developmental bibliotherapy and literature circles, the use of adolescent literature enhances preservice teachers' attitudes toward students impacted by disabilities. Preservice teachers in a required literacy course within an educator preparation program participated in literature circles and read young adolescent literature with protagonists impacted by disabilities. This chapter presents ways literature circles impacted preservice teachers.

Bibliotherapy is one approach, intending to not only help students learn and develop new social skills, but also to experience validation and insight into their own thought processes and emotions. Books can be used to help people with broad range of personal problems, including emotional, physical, and developmental. This study explores the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as an intervention on improving aggressive behavior of fifth graders children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Participants were ten children aged eleve, attended two primary schools in Nasr City; namely Al Sayedia Primary School , and Al Farouk Primary School. A pre-post design was used to examine the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as an intervention on improving aggressive behavior of fifth graders children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Findings from this study advocated for the effectiveness of bibliotherapy as an intervention on improving aggressive behavior of fifth graders children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Today, being confident and having a sound understanding of mathematics is critical in an age of STEM. Teachers must play in important role in seeing that all students display their confidence in their ability to do mathematics. This paper explains the process of using bibliotherapy when teaching mathematics to address both the math anxious or the math gifted student to build more math confidence in a STEM world. Often gifted students of mathematics can be made to feel bad by their peers just because they know mathematics and things come easy to them. Today there are many students in school that have math anxiety. Children's and adolescent literature has been recognized now as a means to teaching mathematics to students through the use of stories to make the mathematics concepts relevant and meaningful. Literature can also be used as a form of therapy, bibliotherapy, to reach students who may be frustrated with children picking on them for knowing a lot of mathematics or who are math anxious. Story and picture books such as "Counting on Frank, Math Curse" and "A Gebra Named Al" are now available to use in the classroom as forms of bibliotherapy in helping students come to terms with issues that haunt them as it relates to mathematics. Children's books can be beneficial to address the math anxious and even the gifted. In this paper the author proposes using reading and discussion (bibliotherapy) to help all students become confident in mathematics in the STEM world we live in.

This article describes how literature works therapeutically to help children cope with feelings of fear and other strong emotions. The author highlights three examples of children's literature that helped her reframe her own experiences and use the characters as models for personal development. The article highlights the research of Robert Brooks at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Gavin Francis, who is both a physician and a writer. Other insights from the folklorist Maria Tatar and the writer A.S. Byatt are provided as support for the main idea that we are drawn to stories as narratives of hope that help us process our lives.

Using books for healing psychological health is becoming popular day by day. In this process bibliotherapy brings forward suggestions of psychological insight, relieving by identification, relieving from suppressed feelings by discharging and reflecting emotions. The aim of this research is to analyse the effect of biblio group counseling supported by the story of "The Little Prince" on mindfulness. In this research bibliotherapeutic support was given with 6 session biblio group counseling supported with the metophoric story of "The Little Prince." The pattern of the present research is an experimental study analysing the impact of Biblio Group Counseling Supported with The Story of "The Little Prince" on the levels of mindfulness. The independent variable of the study is Biblio Group Counseling Supported with the Story of "The Little Prince"; the dependent variable is the students' mindfulness levels obtained from the scores of Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The pattern of the research is 2x3 split-plot pattern. Data collecting tools utilized in this research are; personal information form MAAS. When a general inference was made with regard to the findings of this research, it can be stated that Biblio Group Counseling Supported with the Story of "The Little Prince" enhanced mindfulness levels of individuals in experimental group. This rise was persistent, and stemmed from the effect of empirical practice. Thus sub-hypotheses were confirmed. In conclusion, it was found out that Biblio Group Counseling Supported with the Story of "The Little Prince" was influential in rising mindfulness levels.

Emotional disturbance is a psychological situation in which one's feelings are heightened, causing anxiety to set in. This disturbance can lead to low academic achievements in affected students. It takes away children's attention from realities and this affect their academic, character and skills development that are of benefit to the individual emotionally disturbed student and his community. Bibliotherapy is one of the solutions to emotional disturbance and as a problem-solving skill of counsellors, bibliotherapy will be understood if applied to students at the secondary school level, a time they can read and assimilate content of therapeutic material in a book. Causes of emotional problem in children are many and come in different ways, ranging from death of loved ones to reasons that make children become disturbed. A survey research designed was used to obtained respondents' opinion on perceived effect of problem-solving skills of counsellors on emotionally disturbed students in public secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria. A sample of 267 respondents, gave a grand mean of 4.50 and a standard variation of 0.607 established the effectiveness of bibliotherapy problem-solving skills of counsellors. The study concluded that bibliotherapy is a problem-solving skill of counsellors on emotional problems.

The University of Warwick's FutureLearn MOOC "Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing," which began its first presentation February 2016, was identified as an opportunity to conduct some research into the course subject area, "reading for wellbeing" or "bibliotherapy". Since 2013, a substantial body of literature has emerged in the field of MOOC-related research, with the MOOC becoming both the subject of and vehicle for research. The research approach adopted in "Literature and Mental Health" was influenced by other, recent research studies conducted within MOOCs, and particularly by the first presentation of Monash University's "Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance" FutureLearn MOOC, which distributed a stress survey to its learners in the first and final weeks of the course, to assess the efficacy of the course's mindfulness practices. A number of reasons for trialling the use of this MOOC as a research tool were identified at the project's outset. MOOCs give researchers access to large numbers of possible research participants, making MOOC research an attractive prospect, while the opportunity to gather valuable, potentially publishable data from free online courses may help to justify the time and resources expended during the production of new MOOCs. Several additional benefits of in-MOOC research were discovered during the process, including the potential for research activities to enrich the learner experience. However, a number of challenges and limitations were also encountered during the development of the study; the inevitable self-selection bias among MOOC learners, and the difficulty of establishing a control group within the MOOC activities, posed impediments to the gathering of useful, publishable data. Although we were aware of other MOOCs which had been used as vehicles for research, the process of adapting "Literature and Mental Health" for this research study was nonetheless an illuminating and instructive experience. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on that experience, and to consider the lessons learned during the process which may be useful in informing future research studies conducted via Massive Open Online Courses.

The focus and goal of classroom management should be first and foremost learning. When trying to prevent interruptions to learning, or dealing with interruptions to learning when they occur, teachers need to move beyond simply imposing a consequence and assuming students have learned from the interaction. Students need to be taught the skills and knowledge necessary for growth in self-control, expanding on self-regulated-learning where the teacher's role is interactive and personal, helping students reflect on and validate their experiences. Bibliotherapy, the practice of helping individuals grow and develop through books, is one tool that teachers can use across the curriculum, and in particular, in the field of classroom management. The use of multiple books for a variety of problems and issues encountered in classroom management can yield a number of benefits. By exposing students to a variety of literature with unique, yet relatable characters, students and teachers are able to discuss and address difficult and important topics in the classroom setting.

HIV/AIDS infections are growing at an alarming rate for young adults. In 2009, youth, ages 13-29, accounted for 39% of all new HIV infections in the U.S. (Division of HIV/ AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2011). South Carolina ranks eighth in the nation for new HIV cases, while the capital city of Columbia ranks seventh (Carolina Teen Health, 2012). Education and prevention efforts are needed to raise young adults' awareness of HIV/AIDS issues in order to reduce this troubling trend. To address this need, the researchers and a graphic illustrator worked with incarcerated students age 15-19 in the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice School District, to develop an age-appropriate, culturally-diverse graphic novel on HIV/AIDS, entitled "AIDS in the End Zone." Phase I of the project was to create the novel. Once Phase I was completed, Phase II of the project began. During this phase, graphic novel book club interventions were held with young adults in public libraries in Columbia, South Carolina to measure knowledge gains and impact from reading the graphic novel. The purpose of this phase was to examine the role that graphic novels can play as a resource for increasing HIV/AIDS awareness among young adults. Phase II was funded by the 2013 ALISE Research Grant. The findings of the study are reported here. This study is the first of its kind to provide scientifically-based research that examines whether or not graphic novels can be an effective HIV/AIDS prevention tool for young adults. Implications for LIS education are discussed.

This six-week biliotherapy study was developed to determine if using children's literature books to help students think about, understand, and work through social and emotional issues helped third grade students' develop more social and emotional skills (Sullivan & Strang, 2002). Data collection included pre- and post-surveys, interruption tally charts, pre-and post-sociograms, class meeting videos, student work, and a teacher-research journal. Findings revealed that students had a more accepting attitude of their classmates, had a significant decrease in interruptions, and had an overall growth in their social and emotional skills.

The authors summarize 30 children's books that tell stories of a family member's military deployment in order to identify books that could be used in bibliotherapy for children impacted by deployment. In this sample of books, the main characters are most commonly portrayed as feeling sad about a family member's deployment. The most prevalent coping strategies are finding ways to stay connected to the deployed person and talking with an adult. An unexpected finding was a coping strategy of expressing pride in the family member's military service.

Background: The present study was aimed at developing a grounded theory on how bibliotherapy influences children with intellectual disabilities. Method: Participants were selected among the students of four primary schools in Tehran. They received, for 3 years, a special bibliotherapy intervention provided by the public library in cooperation with a team of experts; The bibliotherapy sessions were held once a week during the academic year. 10 teachers, 4 mothers, and 4 agents (librarians) were selected using a purposeful sampling method, and were interviewed using in-depth interviews. Result: Data analysis was performed using the grounded theory. 'Improvement of skills necessary for adjustment to disability' was identified at the core of grounded theory. Conclusion: Bibliotherapy, as a guided learning method and an add-on therapy, based on an accurate identification of intellectually disabled children's needs and behaviors, providing them with supplemental education materials, empathy, and cooperation among experts from different fields.

Bullying continues to be a challenging issue for classroom teachers. The authors provide seven recommendations to prevent bullying and for intervention if bullying occurs: (a) know the forms of bullying and recognize the effects forms of bullying and recognize the effects, (b) promote a positive classroom environment, (c) teach a variety of conflict resolution strategies, (d) use bibliotherapy, (e) respond to incidents of bullying, (f) help students develop new roles, and (g) provide positive role modeling.

This experimental study compared concept acquisition and enjoyment of learning about perfectionism under two conditions: bibliotherapy (control) and analysis and construction of cartoons (experimental) in first, second and third grade students (N = 46). Posttest results showed students learned significantly more content in the experimental condition with a medium effect size. Students were more engaged in the cartoon condition, appreciating the humor and opportunity to be creative. Most students reported liking the bibliotherapy but some complained of boredom. The authors recommend that both bibliotherapy and cartoon analysis be used in lessons about perfectionism to maintain student interest and comprehension of concepts.

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of self-help books with therapeutic aims; and to propose suggestions by discussing the present situation of self-help books in Turkish cultural context. Taking these aims into account, the existing literature on self-help books is initially reviewed, and a picture of the self-help books in Turkey is drawn regarding the current status of bibliotherapy. Considering Turkey, there firstly exists a confusion in differentiating between self-help books and self-development books. In addition, Turkish self-help books are mainly translations of popular western self-development books lacking the elements of Turkish culture. Thus, original Turkish self-help books are required for personal uses of the readers and professional therapeutic practices. And there is a need for further investigations regarding Turkish context as to how mental health practitioners and clients conceive and make use of self-help books.

This study investigated the role of bibliotherapy in value system formation by undergraduates in seven faculties of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Out of the 1,372 sampled students, 746 (54.37%) were males and 626 (45.63%) were females. The Chi-square statistical method at the alpha level of 0.05 was used in testing four hypotheses developed for the study. The results were statistically significant. Findings indicate that bibliotherapy exerts determining influence on value system formation by undergraduates with respect to group-, self-, society-, environment- and nation-oriented values. These findings corroborated previous studies by educators, librarians, physicians, nurses, psychologists and occupational therapists or bibliotherapists who are of the consensus that the book exerts influence on the human spirit and impacts heavily on human behavior and formation of value system. (Contains 4 tables.)

This study examines the influence of self-prescribed literature on sex education of female students at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The sample population consists of 303 married, engaged, those in love and those yet to fall in love female students. The analysis of data reveals that they read books specifically on friendship, love, marriage and sex, and other related literature on romance, suspense, adventure, science fiction and true life stories. Furthermore, the results show that the main opportunities of instruction on sex and sexual behavior open to the respondents are books, friends and hardly their teachers and parents. They do recommend similar sources of information to their friends and relations. (Contains 6 tables.)

Bibliotherapy--the use of books to heal--is a concept that dates back to the time of the philosopher Aristotle who believed that literature had healing effects and that reading fiction was a way of purging illness. But how is bibliotherapy practiced now in secondary schools? This study investigates bibliotherapy use in a regional Australian city with adolescents who have chronic illness. It explores the responses of members of welfare teams (welfare co-ordinators, school nurses and teacher-librarians) within secondary schools to questions on how books are used with students experiencing issues. Findings indicate that although bibliotherapy practice is not a formal process within schools, its central phenomenon of a reader forming a relationship with a book and then changing in some significant way as a result is a concept that most participants understood and attempted to utilize with the students in their care. (Contains 1 table.)

The psychological, social, and emotional needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth often go unmet in schools. These students may be "out and proud" or they may be silent and invisible; either way, providing effective services to them creates unique challenges for professional school counselors. Providing direct services in schools may be difficult; therefore, indirect methods may create a more hospitable environment for LGBTQ youth. It is the purpose of this article to offer a better understanding of the complexities that sexual minority youth deal with in schools and to offer school counselors and others working in the school environment creative ways to work with LGBTQ students.

Death, illness, divorce, abuse--any degree of loss is unpleasant to discuss, unpleasant to think about. Yet, no one is exempt from the misfortunes that accompany life's journey. This includes gifted children, who at times may be perceived as self-sufficient and smart enough to figure out their own problems even if they are overwhelmingly upset (Peterson, 2006). However, due to their unique social and emotional needs, it is gifted children who during times of sadness may require differential support the most. This article discusses why gifted children need intervention during times of grief and offers strategies to help them cope. (Contains 1 table.)

The role of children's literature in helping children make sense of themselves, their experiences and their worlds either in a classroom setting or in a more therapeutic context has been well documented. What has not been researched as far as we know is the use of children's literature in the college classroom as a means of enabling students to address difficult topics such as issues of oppression and social justice in a manner that is less overwhelming and less threatening. At one Connecticut University children's literature was used in numerous classes in both early childhood education and sociology as a means of facilitating student compassion and empathy for others. Whole group read-alouds of children's literature proved to be an effective tool to help students take the risk of confronting and knowing their own personal views and then make powerful connections to those of others.

This paper describes the experiences of two pre-service primary teachers in a teacher education subject focusing on mathematics and learning difficulties. It describes how bibliotherapy was a powerful reflective tool that provided them with the opportunity to respond cognitively and affectively to their own schooling. By analysing readings about school students' learning and issues such as mathematics anxiety, they reflected on and reconstructed their understanding of their own school experiences. In turn, this challenged their assessment of their capacity to learn and teach mathematics. Bibliotherapy was a healing process that generated both enthusiasm for teaching and an enhanced confidence as the pre-service teachers looked to the future. (Contains 1 footnote.)

The authors of this article examined how pre-service teachers can use children's and young adult literature about disabilities to enhance understanding of individual differences through a bibliotherapeutic approach. An introduction to bibliotherapy is provided along with related literature from the field. Strategies for using children's and young adult literature to enhance the understanding of issues associated with disabilities are presented along with one teacher candidate's application of the literature in her classroom. The authors have also included a selected bibliography of children's literature on disabilities as well as relevant websites. (Contains 2 figures.)

With developmental bibliotherapy frequently used in schools, this article addresses the necessity of educating future teachers in the proper implementation of bibliotherapy so that their students may reap the benefits and avoid inadvertent harm. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits and use of developmental bibliotherapy in the classroom and to promote the same. The article also reviews the role of the education librarian in a Curriculum Materials Center (CMC).

This article explains a practical strategy for dealing with social emotional problems in the inclusive classroom environment. The potential need for bibliotherapy is introduced by discussing how role boundaries of teachers are changing and how teachers may take on a range of roles in their classrooms. An example of a social emotional scenario where bibliotherapy might be used in a classroom is presented, and the practice of bibliotherapy is defined. The setting, needed resources, story choice selection, lesson planning and potential benefits of bibliotherapy are explained in detail. (Contains 5 tables.)

The literary works surveyed here were written by authors who, as children, witnessed apartheid, holocaust, imprisonment, escape, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other horrors that marked their lives. In each case, the selected texts are rendered as diaries or as first-person narratives describing disturbing situations which are resolved either through reading, writing or merely adjusting. In this article, the author discusses text interrogation as an instructional approach for instructors to use to introduce some of these literary works. Using this approach, the instructor uses focused questions to develop proximity to the text and to anticipate and address some of the historical and contextual information that will have to be carefully explained to youngsters. This approach promotes literacy in three ways: (1) using a compelling genre; (2) providing readers with opportunities to articulate reactions, personal positions, fears and concerns; and (3) the freedom to decide to "gloss over" what they do not want to read or deal with at the moment. In this day and age, when young adults are gratuitously exposed to scenes of violence in the media, a genre like this one seems most appropriate. The global/transcultural nature of this collection provides a first-person perspective on compelling historical events that had not been unearthed so dramatically before.