‘Health on the Shelf’ in partnership with Libraries Tasmania is a collection of suggested picture and story books for young children and fictional books for young readers. The collection hopes to increase understanding of food, eating, growing up, body confidence, diversity and joyful ways to move bodies through reading. It is a resource for both parents and educators. You can print a copy of the list
Early Childhood and Lower Primary School Age Books
Top tip for parents: Talking and sharing stories with babies and children is important for their development. Don’t worry if your reading’s not the best.
You can give your child a great start by talking, singing, playing and sharing simple books together.
Tips:
- use the pictures to tell a story
- talk slowly
- make sounds and use different voices to create fun and excitement
- point to the pictures as well as the words
- let children ask questions or guess what’s going to happen in the story
- let children turn the pages
- make it fun and an enjoyable time together
- make some time every day.
Using storybooks, you can talk about:
- colour and shape using different vegetables and fruits
- togetherness and sharing through stories about eating as a family and with friends
- difference by showing how each family and culture does not eat or do things the same way
- who we are through understanding what we eat is about culture and history
- how food is grown and prepared
- looking after the world through exploring food waste and use of water
- movement through understanding what our bodies can do.
Books about growing, cooking and eating food, colour, shape and days of the week
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
Lunch | Denise Flemming | A hungry mouse eating vegetables and fruit |
The Beastly Feast | Bruce Goldstone | A group of animal friends sharing a meal |
Eating the Alphabet | Lois Ehlert | All about the ABC's |
Growing Vegetable Soup | Lois Ehlert | All about growing vegetables and making soup to eat |
The Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | Eating different foods and days of the week |
Strawberries are red | Petr Horacek | Explore colour using fruit |
Ten Scared Fish | Ros Moriarty and Balarinji | A book about numbers and animals illustrated with Aboriginal images |
I Like Fruit | Lorena Siminovich | About enjoying foods, getting involved in growing foods |
I Like Peas | Lorena Siminovich | About enjoying vegetables, getting involved in growing foods |
Cook it! | George Birkett | Cooking food |
Grow it! | George Birkett | Growing food |
Leslie Bockol | Children enjoying growing and eating fruit and vegetables | |
Blueberries for Sal | Robert McCloskey | A girl and her mother picking fruit to store for the winter |
Kindy kitchen : where fruit and vegies come to life | Jessica Rossman | Fun and interactive rhymes about food |
Eileen Browne | Explore cultural diversity through food | |
Dr Seuss | Humorous book about trying new foods | |
Lauren Child | Trying new foods | |
Mitchell Sharmat | Trying new foods | |
What if vegetables were people | Kate Wengier | Creating fun, positive associations with vegetables |
What if fruit were animals | Kate Wengier | Creating fun, positive associations with fruit |
What's growing | Kate Wengier | About growing food |
At my family table | Mandy Dos Santos | Eating together |
Books about active play and having fun outdoors
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
Pamela Allen | Going to the beach for a play and sharing a picnic | |
Rosemary Nastnak | Dancing and dressing up fun with grandma | |
I Can Do It | Jana Novotny Hunter | Exploring all the things to do on the first day of preschool |
Jackie French | Everyone can have dreams to do what they want | |
Brontorina | James Howe | A dinosaur who wants to be a ballerina |
Michael Rosen | Using imagination and getting active | |
Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Ride, Ride, Ride Your Bike | Wes Magee | Nursery rhymes to encourage active play |
Sam McBratney and Charles Fuge | Using imagination to encourage being active | |
The Patchwork Bike | Maxine Beneba Clarke and Van T Rudd | Getting creative and having fun building a bike from scratch |
How to catch a star | Oliver Jeffers | A boy working out how to catch a star and not giving up |
Books about looking after your body and diversity
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
Sigrun Danielsdottir | Positive body image and body diversity (all ages) | |
Shapesville | Andy Mills and Becky Osborn | Body confidence and body diversity |
What I like about me! | Allia Zobel Nolan | Everyone is different and that is normal |
Trace Maloney | About love and friendships | |
Love Your Body | Jessica Sanders and Carol Rossetti | Body confidence and body diversity |
Embrace Your Body | Taryn Brumfitt | Body confidence and body diversity |
I like myself | Karen Beaumont | Body confidence and liking yourself |
Trace Maloney | Understanding feelings | |
Jez Alborough | A book about loneliness and friendship | |
Tom Skinner | Growing up and and fitting in | |
Margaret Wild | First day a school | |
The huge bag of worries | Virginia Ironside | How to prioritise everyday worries and how to give them to other people. Managing anxiety. |
The Very Best of Friends | Margaret Wild | Friendship and growing up on a farm |
Dr Seuss | About looking after your teeth | |
Loving Comfort | Julie Dillemuth | A toddler weaning story |
Mama's milk is all gone | Ann Pauline Vernon | Breastfeeding and weaning |
Lola's new cousin | Luana Towney | A breastfeeding story (Tasmanian author) |
It's okay to be different | Todd Parr | About celebrating difference |
The feel good book | Todd Parr | What makes you feel good |
My country | Ezekiel Kwaymullina illustrated by Sally Morgan. | A story of country |
I'm Australian too | Mem Fox | Families from different places who make Australia home |
My two blankets | Irena Kobald | A story of fleeing a war torn country and settling in Australia (comes in multiple languages) |
Family Forest | Kim Kane | Celebrating all different types of families using an engaging story |
The goanna was hungry and other stories | The Spinifex writing camp with Sally Morgan | Friendship and loyalty and a scary goanna |
Charlie the Caterpillar | Dom Deluise and Christopher Santoro | Friendship and difference |
I love my hair | Natasha Anastasia Tarpley | Body confidence (about very curly hair) |
I don’t want curly hair | Laura Ellen Anderson | A story about not wanting curly hair but grows to accept it |
The girl who never made mistakes | Mark Pett | A story about a girl who learns the value in not having to be perfect |
Young Readers
Reading is an important skill for children to learn. Through books and stories, children can learn about people, places, different ideas and new things to try. This will help them navigate their way through life and problem solve. These books are suitable for young readers.
Books about life and growing up
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley | Colin Thompson | Body diversity, acceptance and big picture thinking about life (a picture book suitable for upper primary and high school children) |
Diary of a Wimpy kid (series) | Jeff Kinney | A humorous look at growing up and fitting in |
Short | Holly Goldberg Sloan | A story of self-discovery and the value of role models |
Hello Universe | Erin Entrada Kelly | Kids helping each other when a prank goes wrong |
Hatchet Series | Gary Paulson | Series of books about a boys adventure in the wilderness |
Boy Overboard | Morris Glietzman | Overcoming adversity to succeed |
The first third | Will Kostakis | Family and growing up |
The terrible thing that happened to Barnaby Brocket | Boyne | A story about being different and finding ways to overcome this |
The lost girl | Ambelin Kwaymullina and Leanne Tobin | A young girl is lost and finds her way home to family. Explores traditional Aboriginal kinship groups. |
One photo | Ross Watkins | Explores aging |
Books about being active and having fun
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
Nips IX | Ruth Starke | Sport and multiculturalism |
Play like a girl series | Jo Stanley | A series of books about girls playing sport like Australian Rules Football |
Books about diversity and body confidence
Title | Author | About the book |
---|---|---|
A smart girls’ guide to liking herself – even on the bad days | Laurie Zelinger | Exploring self-esteem in a more complex way |
Sigrun Danielsdottir | Positive body image and body diversity (a picture book suitable for all ages) | |
Shapesville | Andy Mills and Becky Osborn | Body confidence and body diversity (a picture book) |
Robie H Harris | A book about diversity (upper primary) | |
Smile | Raina Telgemeier | About a girl who has her front teeth knocked out, dealing with body changes and friendships |
Sex is a funny word | Cory Silverberg | A comic book that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities |
Wonder | R Palacio | The funny, sweet and incredibly moving story of Auggie Pullman. Born with a terrible facial abnormality |
Deenie | Judy Blume | About a girl with scoliosis who find out beautify isn’t as important as she was told (12 years and up) |
Girl stuff 8-12 | Kaz Cooke | Body changes, friendships, confidence and more |
Parvana | Deborah Ellis | A story based on real life of a girl growing up in Afghanistan |
The Magnificent Toby Plum | Deirdre Cowman and Deirdre Ryan | Celebrating difference and how to stop comparing yourself to others |
The Beauty is in the Walking | James Moloney | Jacob has cerebral palsy but in this small town a mystery needs to be solved and justice done, it's up to Jacob |