Handbooks for Little Humans: Compassion

Handbooks for Little Humans: Compassion by Zanni Louise (Affirm Press), RRP $19.99 Picture Book ISBN 9-781923-293175

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

A dazzling cover, engaging style, colours popping off the pages and a big feeling described succinctly in age-appropriate language – Compassion packs a punch!

I was a tad fearful that Compassion - the first in a new series called Handbooks for Little Humans from Affirm Press – might be a dry self-help book that wouldn’t engage my son.  It was anything but. The book itself feels animated – as though it is having a direct conversation with its young readers, relating the concept of compassion to real-life examples that the reader may experience at home, at school and at play. It’s also a sweet book for a carer and child to read together with various spreads triggering opportunities to pause and ask questions. This is interspersed with light-heartened pages which up the fun level of the book. My son particularly enjoyed the comic strip about a lion, a monkey and a stick in the centre spread.

What else makes this book so engaging? The length. At just 24 pages, for this topic it’s the ideal length to engage, leave an impression and not lose the reader. Thanks to this short bedtime read, my son now knows that the hard-to-describe feeling he has when he gives a hug to that friend in need is called compassion.

Suitable for little humans aged 3 to 8 years.