Meet Minna and learn about the concept of masking in this inclusive picture book for young children

This heart-warming and inclusive picture book introduces the concept of masking to young children neurodivergent or otherwise.

Meet Minna. When Minna needs to fool brave, she wears a mask, when she meets new people, she wears a mask. On Minna's first day at a new school, she malises she's left her masks at home and starts to feel very nervous indeed. Things are too loud and too noisy-what if she says the wrong thing or does something silly? But when a classmate shows Minna the mask in his back pocket, she realises she's not alone. Perhaps it is possible to be accepted-with or without a mask.

Masking is used by people to help them fit in or adjust to situations where they may otherwise feel insecure, or unsure. Through Minna's story, readers will leam about about masking as well as important lessons about empathy and compassion.

From Louise Gooding, author of Wonderfully Wired Brains, which was Highly Commended at The Week Junior book awards, comes this vibrant and inclusive picture book series of Wonderfully Wired Stories that sensitively explores a range of neurodivergent experiences. Each book comes with expert guidance to help caregivers discuss big topics with their little leamers.

After years working in children's entertainment, Louise Gooding channelled her creativity into writing. Louise has a keen interest in sharing stories that feature characters that stand out, are different, and who have something to say. Inspired by stories from her own experiences and those of her family, she took up writing to find a way of discussing neurological and physical diversity, and how to explore other sensitive issues within children's books.

Irina Avgustinovich is a children's book illustrator from Belarus, now based in Portugal. Despite having a bachelor's degree in classical painting and ceramics, she found herself in children's illustration many years ago.

- AWARD CONTENDER: Author Louise Gooding's first book with DK-Wonderfully Wired Brains was highly commended in The Week Junior Book Awards 2024, Children's Book of the Year: STEM STEM category
- TOPICAL: "E's estimated that about one person in seven in the UK is neurodivergent" (The Donaldson Trust, 2024), with the impact felt in many families and classrooms
- AUTHOR EXPERTISE Louise Gooding is an Inclusive Minds Ambassador and neurodiversity advocate with first-hand experience of neurodiversity, including ADHD and autism
- STORY OF ACCEPTANCE: When Minna forgets to take her masks to school she feels overwhelmed, but she leams that it is possible to feel brave, calm, and accepted with or without her masks

In this unusual retelling, the biblical story of creation is told from Eve's perspective and explores what it might have been like emotionally for the world's first two people to experience everything for the very first time--seeing and naming the animals; feeling the rain; fearing the night; becoming excited by the stars, and having faith that they are not alone.Lush illustrations bring the wonder of the new world to life, while children will enjoy looking for the recurring cat and dog characters throughout the story.  The story stops well before the infamous apple-eating scene, focusing instead on themes of curiosity, discovery, new experiences, handling fear, and having faith. Author's note further explores the nature of faith for young children.

Engaging fiction and non-fiction fully aligned to each week of Essential Letters and Sounds, allowing children to consolidate their phonic knowledge through reading in context. These fully decodable readers are 100% matched to the phonic progression of Essential Letters and Sounds. Essential Letters and Sounds is a systematic synthetic phonics programme validated by the Department for Education. These readers complement your existing decodable readers from Oxford University Press and can be used alongside them to support the teaching of Essential Letters and Sounds. Rabbit in the Well allows children to apply their phonics learning from Reception, Spring 2, Week 5 of Essential Letters and Sounds.