Overview

Bibliotherapy is a new and creative approach for helping children deal with both small problems and major life crises, such as placement in substitute care. Bibliotherapy literally means treatment through books. It is a process of intervention that involves the child as well as the helping person. Bibliotherapy is an approach that helps children through reading to more clearly understand the problems facing them and to develop solutions for solving problems. Bibliotherapy is particularly useful for children placed in foster care or adoption because it can be implemented by all helping persons working with the child welfare system. These persons include foster and adoptive parents, biological parents, teachers, psychologists, social workers, clergy, and librarians.