Allen & Unwin The Story Cure book English Hardcover 384 pages

This 'perfect gift' (Vogue) is an essential guide to filling your children's shelves with all the books they'll ever need.

The stories that shape our children's lives are too important to be left to chance. With The Story Cure, bibliotherapists Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin have put together the perfect manual for grown-ups who want to initiate young readers into one of life's greatest pleasures. There's a remedy for every hiccup and heartache, whether it's between the covers of a picture book, a pop-up book, or a YA novel. You'll find old favourites like The Borrowers and The Secret Garden alongside modern soon-to-be classics by Michael Morpurgo, Malorie Blackman and Frank Cottrell-Boyce, as well as helpful lists of the right reads to fuel any obsession - from dogs or dinosaurs, space or spies. Wise and witty, The Story Cure will help any small person you know through the trials and tribulations of growing up, and help you fill their bookshelves with adventure, insight and a lifetime of fun.

Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin met as English Literature students at Cambridge University, where they began giving novels to each other whenever one of them seemed in need of a boost. Ella went on to study fine art and become a painter and art teacher. Susan became a novelist and journalist. In 2008 they set up a bibliotherapy service through The School of Life in London, and since then have been prescribing books either virtually or in person to clients all over the world. With four children, two husbands, various cats, dogs, mice and tortoises (some of them imaginary) between them, they created their first book, The Novel Cure, together in 2013, followed up by The Story Cure in 2016. www.thenovelcure.com