Truth Tellers Series for Children

Launches with The Awfulizer

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New book helps children identify feelings of shame, gives them the tools to fight back against negative emotions.

 

Shame is keenly felt by humans, affecting all ages and stages of life. Mommy, body, and fat shaming are sadly common terms and occurrences in today’s culture. And while primarily associated with adults, children are just as apt to feel shame. Without the tools and support to react and respond, that shame can lead to damaging and even devastating consequences: according to The Child Mind Institute, child and adolescent mental health disorders are the most common illnesses that children will experience under the age of 18—more common than the common cold. An estimated 17 million American children have a mental health disorder. 

 

In the first book in the new Truth Tellers series from National Center for Youth Issues, The Awfulizer: Learning to Overcome the Shame Game (Aug. 20, 2019), speaker, advocate, writer, and mother of three Kristin Maher helps children identify the voice of shame, call it out, and combat its presence in their lives by sharing those feelings with a trusted adult and voicing positivity when the shame monster—The Awfulizer—rears its ugly face. 

 

The Awfulizer tells the story of eight-year-old James and the first time he met The Awfulizer—a monster that it seemed only he could see, who appears to remind him of his bad or embarrassing behavior. The more James listens to The Awfulizer, the worse he feels about himself; the monster grows larger and the greater the effects of shame become. Noticing a change in their child’s behavior, James’s parents sit him down to talk about what’s been bothering him, and James finds freedom and comfort in opening up about the feelings he’s experiencing. His parents give him tools to fight the negative feelings of shame—“superpowers” that turn him into The Awesomizer.

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