Books, booklets & multimedia

Nutmeg Gets Cross

	Price: £10.00 24 pages 10 pages practice guidelines	BAAF, July 2002 ISBN 978-1-903699-13-3

This book continues the story of Nutmeg, the small red squirrel who with his younger sister and brother, featured in the popular and well-received Nutmeg Gets Adopted (published by BAAF last year). Suitable for post-adoption work with children, this new story offers a practical way to identify, explore and understand painful feelings that are likely to surface following adoption - often triggered by seemingly happy events such as birthdays or contact with birth siblings, but also due to problems at school such as bullying and being behind their peers.

Happily adopted children may at times experience ‘butterflies in their tummies’, ‘muddled heads’ making it difficult to think clearly, or angry reactions to siblings and friends and destructive impulses - but will be quite unable to explain their behaviour or strong feelings. This story will help parents and professionals working with children in this situation to understand what may be causing them to feel cross, confused and sad and to help them to heal by identifying and exploring possible reasons for their feelings. The benefits of tears, touching gently while talking with your child, and hugging with the whole family are also explained.

The colourful illustrations feature the delightful characters of the previous story and while the book can be used simply as a story, it can also be used as a workbook and as a tool for therapy. Again, the text is accompanied by practice guidelines which explain the significance of each stage of the story and thoughts and feelings which may be explored.