We are con­fronting a glob­al men­tal health cri­sis felt most acute­ly by our youth. One can hard­ly pick up a news­pa­per on any giv­en day with­out read­ing the grim sta­tis­tics. Yet despite being bom­bard­ed with infor­ma­tion about the grav­i­ty of the cri­sis, par­ents and teach­ers have few tools to address men­tal health issues ear­ly in a child’s devel­op­ment. Acces­si­ble and inno­v­a­tive strate­gies are need­ed to safe­guard our children’s well-being and build sus­tain­able com­mu­ni­ties.

Sto­ry­telling intro­duces young chil­dren to issues of lone­li­ness, stress, depres­sion, and the need to belong. Elephant’s Big Climb, and its com­pan­ion book Panda’s Help­ing Paw, pro­vide an easy way to address feel­ings con­struc­tive­ly. With lov­able char­ac­ters and easy-to-under­stand expla­na­tions, these books shine a light on men­tal health and well-being-per­fect tools for par­ents and edu­ca­tors to spark mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions and intro­duce com­plex con­cepts in a fun and engag­ing way. By teach­ing our chil­dren about men­tal health ear­ly on, we can nor­mal­ize the con­di­tion as they learn to under­stand their own feel­ings and those of their friends to aid in healthy living.