Empathy Bookshelf

Empathy Bookshelf

How to:  

Create an Empathy Bookshelf anywhere suitable in your setting.  

Invite children and young people to choose which books should go on the Empathy Bookshelf and ask them to explain why. Discussion points:  

  • what are the characters like, what words describe their personality?  
  • how are the characters feeling at different points in the story?  
  • which characters would they most like to meet?   
  • did the book help them understand someone different to themselves?  

Decorate your Empathy Bookshelf with the banner in this pack or make your own.   

Take a photo with your Empathy Bookshelf and share it with us! 

DOWNLOAD our FREE resources to support the Empathy Bookshelf activity. Register for the resources with the link below, if you have already registered, find the link to our resources pages in your email inbox.

REGISTER FOR RESOURCES

For younger children

  • ask them to think about books they have read at school or home – which ones helped them think differently, or feel something for a particular character?  
  • encourage children to share a book from home 
  • when choosing books they may have read as a group, encourage different viewpoints on the characters to be shared   

For older children and young people

  • discuss what makes a story an empathy-rich read – you can find out more about empathy read in our toolkit, register to download the toolkit here
  • invite young people to write a short review of their empathy book choice to add to the display  
  • encourage swaps between empathy bookshelves – what would one year group recommend to another year group?   

Braes High School