S2E4 Little Library: Mr Huff

Welcome to a brand-new episode of Learn Play Thrive’s Little Library mini-series, where host Linda Harrison is joined by Linda Stock—a qualified early childhood educator, therapeutic practitioner, and university lecturer specialising in children’s literature. 

In this illuminating conversation, the two experts dive deep into the emotional landscapes of picture books, focusing on Anna Walker’s award-winning story, Mr Huff. Linda Stock draws upon her extensive background in Bibliotherapy and Narrative Therapy to explain how the story externalises a child’s anxiety, turning a heavy emotion into a separate entity—a grey cloud named "Mr Huff"—that children can look at, talk to, and walk beside rather than being defined by it.

This episode focuses on how emotional literacy, highlighting how one-on-one shared reading acts as a form of therapy by fostering secure attachments. The discussion introduces the concept of the 'Third Space'—the sacred, imaginative zone between a child’s inner world and an adult’s understanding where meaningful emotional growth unfolds. Listeners will take away a  strength-based toolkit for helping young children feel safe, secure, and deeply supported through the use of picture books.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast, the ultimate early learning podcast for educators and leaders in the sector. Let's learn, play, and thrive together.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

The Learn Play Thrive podcast was recorded on the land with the Dark and John people. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians, past, present, and emerging. Hands up, hands down, clear on dark and young land.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

A warm welcome to today's episode of Learn Play Thrive's Little Library. I'm Linda Harrison, and today we are exploring the profound emotional landscape of picture books. We are looking at an award-winning picture book called Mr. Huff by creator Anna Walker, which is a story about a young boy named Bill and the cloudy character that follows him, making everything feel just a little bit difficult. So joining me today to unpack the benefits of using picture books to support young children emotionally is Linda Stock, a qualified early childhood educator and therapeutic practitioner with a rich background in children's literature and early education. She holds a master's in children's literature and a graduate diploma in counselling, and her work is dedicated to using stories to empower and create safe places for children. Linda has spent over two decades curating a library of high-quality literature to foster resonance for children facing anxiety and family stress. She's served as a longtime panelist for the Australian Association of Family Therapy Children's Book Awards and now supports the next generation of early childhood teachers at the University of Newcastle. Wow, Lindy, your career has really centred on that intersection of education therapy and the importance of quality picture books. Welcome. Hello Linda, and thank you so much for having me. So Lindy, your work is grounded in two fascinating fields. So before we dive into the picture book, Mr. Huff, could you define for our listeners what bibliotherapy and narrative therapy actually are? I'd love to.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

So bibliotherapy is the use of books to help people navigate emotional distress. And it's about finding a story that matches or resonates with a child's inner experience. You're not trying to fix the child, but you're providing opportunities for them to dive into stories and create connections that can help them and provide strategies for their toolbox. Narrative therapy is a complementary partner to that. It's a strength-based approach. It's a therapeutic modality that views the problem as something external from the child. So you're not angry, you have anger that comes to you, and it's trying to find ways to manage that anger. And if you can see it as separate from yourself, it's a lot easier to find strategies to help manage it. I promote a focus on early attachment using bibliotherapy and narrative therapy as complementary therapies as a foundation for this approach. They're collaborative strategies which support and nurture young children and their families. I often use the picture book Mr. Huff in my work with young children. In this story, the character Bill isn't a sad boy, he's a boy who's being followed by a huff. By naming the feeling Mr. Huff, we externalise the anxiety, which ties in really well with the narrative therapy approach. And the huff can be a number of things, so that's up to the child to identify what their Mr. Huff is. It makes the emotion something that we can look at together, talk to, and eventually walk beside rather than something that defines who the child is. My approach blends the set therapeutic support with consultancy and education to foster meaningful change.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Wow, that sounds so interesting. And I think all early childhood educators who might not have heard of those approaches before and ways to use picture books through that kind of therapy. Is there some more reading that they can do?

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Yes, the um narrative therapy was founded by two Australians, Michael White and David Epston. I think he was actually a New Zealander. It's founded in a centre called the Dulwich Center, which is in South Australia, and they provide reading, they provide online workshops and further study. Bibliotherapy, there's not a lot of research in terms of children, but there are articles on bibliotherapy and its its uses. I actually have an article here by Kelly Booker in 2012 called Using Picture Books to Empower Readers and Writers in the Upper Primary School. And she talks a little bit about how bibliotherapy works.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

So I think that shift in perspective when we're looking at the power of picture books and how they can support a young child's emotional literacy is so important. And in the early years, we might sometimes get caught up in tracking children's developing early literacy skills, you know, around recognizing print and reading picture books. But nurturing their emotional literacy through the feeling of a book is also so important. So, Linda, how do you use Mr. Huff in your work to prioritize that emotional connection?

SPEAKER_03 5:25

You can individualise it to the child because Mr. Huff can be anything. It can be anger, sadness, frustration. And I think the way the the book is structured shows a shift from negative to positive. And one of the things about uh Mr. Huff, and I think it's important in thinking about things of anxiety in children, it doesn't disappear. It's about how you manage it. And Mr. Huff is always there, but he becomes overwhelming through the story. But at the end, it's really important to show the children that Mr. Huff is still there as a little soft toy on the bed.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

And the shift also from the his outlook in the morning, it's cloudy with a chance of rain, and at the end of the story, it's cloudy with a chance of sunshine. Yes. So it's such a clever way of illustrating, you know, a shift in thinking, which is so important in you know therapeutic processes.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

It's fantastic. And uh I think also I know that you mentioned a little bit about a book that you I guess that inspired you, which was Gina Chick's book, We Are the Stars. Yes. So those characters in in that book that had a big resonance for that author. And so, how did that inspire your work?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Well, when I read the story and I read her Gina being inspired by the characters in that book to the point where she tore off pages of the book and and ate the book so the characters would live inside her.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

And that's how much they meant to her, and that's how much they I suppose grounded her and formed her and became crutches to help her her get through what she was going through. That made me sort of go, yes, you know, yes. It sort of reassures or confirms that, you know, what bibliotherapy, the power of bibliotherapy to support people through their healing.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And so I guess when a child sees the character Bill in Mr. Huff and they see that big grey huff, they're not just reading, they're actually seeing themselves represented in the book, and that's helping their emotional understanding. So they they're finding bits of themselves within that picture book, and that's I guess a toolkit that they can then draw on when their own Mr. Huff appears.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yes, and and that they they can minimize it. And when I use that one-on-one with a child, it's such a fantastic opportunity as well, apart from what's in the story, for promoting that shared experience, you know, and building and helping with attachment. Absolutely. And sort of the adult leaning into the story with the child, and that that's really important. It's not just the story, it's the whole the whole experience. That shared reading. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

And then your work also focuses on the connection between a child's inner world and the adult's understanding. So when during that shared reading, your work talks about how that actually happens in something that you call the third space. So, how can a picture book like Mr. Huff help an adult hold space for a young child's emotions?

SPEAKER_03 8:57

Well, the third space is it's actually an expression that was coined by a professor of literature, Rosemary Ross Johnson, who I had the privilege of studying with. And it's where the text and the illustrations collide and the meaning happens. And I think that can be applicable to a whole lot of situations in life where there's the physicality of two people and what's happening between where the meaning happens is the third space. And so in Mr. Half, when I'm reading it, there's what's being read, the physicality of what's being read, and the physicality of what the child's seeing, and then what they are creating from that, the meaning, that's the third space, and how they apply that to their own lives and how it resonates with them. That's sort of the space that sits in between.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

It's so fascinating, and I think uh you can just imagine the importance of those connections and children using their imagination uh together with whether it be a parent or an educator or if they are going to therapy uh through that shared experience. And I think in the picture book of Mr. Huff, the main character, Bill, he does try to run away from Mr. Huff, but Mr. Huff gets bigger. So it's only when Bill stops that he a surprising thing actually happens in the story and he sees a tear in Mr. Huff's eye. So by holding space when we're reading with children, we can allow children to sit with that grey cloud without rushing to fix it, which is what you were talking about before. So I guess that's not a one-size-fits-all model, but how do how does that work? How could educators work with that in their settings?

SPEAKER_03 10:51

So if I work with a child with anxiety, for example, I I don't name the grey cloud as anxiety. We just read the story, and I think children can relate to what's happening in their own um world with what's happening in the story and the overwhelm that's getting bigger. When Bill snaps back. So when the cloud shifts, because anxiety can actually be quite useful for a child, it it can stop them getting into danger, and it's a normal process. So I think the the way Mr. Huff is such a fantastic book is that it you never get rid of the anxiety, but it's all about managing it. It's about making that grey cloud something that you can control, it doesn't overwhelm you.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Such an important message, and picture books are so wonderful in exploring a whole range of emotions for young children, whether it be from you know, feeling happy or sad to angry, you know, or I'm excited, there's so many different emotions, and picture books are wonderful to explore the depth of that emotions because they have the illustrations as well as the text. But sometimes with older children, we might rush into moving them onto chapter books. But why should we persevere with picture books and keep exploring those rich layers, even with older children as they move into primary school?

SPEAKER_03 12:34

Because part of I think confidence is familiarity and being able to sit with things that you feel comfortable with. We talk a lot about you know getting out of our comfort zone, but a lot of good stuff happens where you are comfortable, and that builds confidence. And I think that is true for reading as well. So a child will become really familiar with a story and they'll build their confidence, and there seems to be this need to then move on to something it's seen as as progress. But so many picture books have layers that can be explored, and you know, the the study of picture books is an adult course. Yeah. And so we're looking at picture books and learning so much about them as adults. And so I'm not sure why there's this rush to move on from picture books for for children. Anthony Brown in particular is one author whose picture books are so complex and he's got motives throughout that are repeated across his a lot of his different stories, and he he deals with a whole lot of really complex issues, and he's got a book called Voices in the Park, which is the same story from four different perspectives. Okay. And so, I mean, that's that's a complexity when you're learning about how different people see the same situation. So I think there are certainly a range of picture books that can allow for that complexity and development of ideas and perspectives. Definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

And I think Anna Walker uh in Mr. Huff, she uses that limited colour palette. Yes. But though there's lots of details within the illustration that show that nebulous nature of anxiety. And I think if we rush into chapter books, then we're missing that opportunity to read those visual cues of emotions, and even in the end papers of picture books, there's so many opportunities to do that. So an immersion within a picture book can help their children to explore those uh emotions and they provide that resonance for children to have that need to feel seen and heard because they can see themselves represented within the story. Yeah. Okay, well, Linda, thank you for showing us how a bad day in a picture book can become a beautiful moment of connection. And before we go, uh we'd love to share some story-inspired play-based ideas to help educators bring this third space concept into their daily practice. So I was thinking for one idea we could invite children to paint their own Mr. Huff. So using a gradient of grey and yellow, and it links so well to the EYLF Learning Outcome 5.3, where children can use media to express ideas and make meaning through multimodal play. That's a wonderful idea, Linda.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Seeing that transition from gloom to sunlight on paper is so powerful. Another simple way is through sensory exploration. Educators could create a sensory bin filled with cotton wool. As children move the clouds to find hidden yellow pebbles, they are physically relating to that feeling of huff while retelling the story in their own ways. This supports EYLF Outcome 3.1, helping children to become strong in their social and emotional well-being.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I love that. And perhaps my favourite way to bring the story to life is by creating a Mr. Huff reading nook. So this is a physical area, a manifestation of that third space. It can be a cozy, intentional space for supporting emotional literacy. So to make it inviting, we can include props like soft oversized grey floor cushions and tactile woolen blankets to mirror Mr. Huff's nebulous cloud texture. We could even hang a yellow sunshine canopy above to represent the hope at the end of Bill's journey. And it's a place where an educator can simply sit alongside a child, perhaps even with a feeling stone or a soft grey plush, practicing that secure attachment. And it's a beautiful way to meet EYLF Learning Outcome 1.1, ensuring children feel safe, secure, and supported as they navigate big emotions. Exactly. Shared reading in that space is the therapy. And were there any other picture books that you'd recommend that educators could have a look at to share with young children to explore anxiety and other emotions?

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Yes, there's a wonderful story called Being Agatha by Anna Pinataro. And Agatha feels a little bit different as she's starting school. Her parents are culturally diverse and she's not sure how she fits in. And everyone else seems to have a special skill, but she's not sure of her skills. So when she becomes upset during class time, she hides. And her other her friends are very concerned and tried to try to find her. And the outcome of the story is with the support from a teacher, they decide that she's just very good at being herself. So she doesn't need to have a special skill. And the last line is because you are the best at being Agatha. No one else is a better Agatha than you.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Oh, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

And everyone agreed. Yeah. So that that's that, you know, confirmation about sometimes we look at people's outer skills and what they seem to be good at, but it's actually she's just good at being herself.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Oh, that's a great recommendation. And I think that um brings us to the end of today's episode. And just to finish off, Mr. Huff is a gentle, poignant, and affirming must-have that helps us navigate emotions together with young children. So, Linda, thank you so much for joining us here in the Little Library and for sharing your expertise on how we can hold space for these important emotional connections. It was my absolute pleasure, Linda. Thank you for having me. So we'd love to see how you bring the third space to life in your own settings. Whether it's a Mr. Huff reading nook or a sensory cloud, bin, share your photos and stories with us using hashtag LPT Little Library. Until next time, keep reading, playing, and thriving.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Thank you for joining us on this episode of LearnPlaythrive the podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to fuel your journey in early childhood education. Remember the key to fostering learning, promoting play, and empowering young minds lies with your dedication and creativity. Stay connected between episodes by following us on Instagram at learnplaythrive underscore and join the conversation on Facebook at LearnPlaythrive Australia. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate, or review our podcast on your favourite platform. Your feedback helps us to continue to deliver content that resonates with you. And don't forget to visit us at our website at learnplaythrive.com.au for additional resources, blog posts, and professional development opportunities. Until next time, keep learning, keep playing, and keep thriving. We'll see you in the next episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast.