Clementine Unstacked! A new children’s book written by two UMSL graduates. (Cover art courtesy of her Jen Monika McCurdy and Christine Corrigan Mendez)
In a new children’s book series, two local counselors aim to empower and engage children facing difficult emotional challenges.
In July, licensed professional counselors Jen Monica McCurdy and Christine Corrigan Mendes released the first publication in the Kids Can Club series, Clementine Get Unstuck! He also created an accompanying digital his program KidsCanClub.com. This builds on book lessons with free activities, games, wellness he exercises, and more. Their overall goal is to foster empowerment, engagement and agency in children while giving them emotional wellness exercises and tools they can carry out throughout their lives.
Mendes and McCurdy met at the University of Missouri St. Louis, who both have master’s degrees in counseling, hopes to engage and empower young readers through this project. Both had marketing backgrounds and often talked about collaborating on projects before moving into the counseling field. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating new mental health issues, they felt the time was right.
“It’s really hard being a kid right now,” McCurdy said. “Being a parent and being a teacher is hard right now. If there is anything we can do in that area to support those teachers and families, that was one of our goals.” .”
The first book in the new series, Clementine Gets UNSTUCK!, was released on July 27th. The book follows Clementine, her nerve-diverging third-grader, with thoughts like “jiwi-wa”, “jin-jin”, and “tangle” making her feel “stuck”. She finds solutions to problems at school and decides to start a “Kids Club” to help her classmates and others solve their own problems.
Writers Jen Monica McCurdy and Christine Corrigan Mendez met while pursuing their master’s degree in counseling at UMSL. (Photo Credit: Jen Monika McCurdy and Christine Corrigan Mendez)
Unlike many other children’s health books, McCurdy and Mendez specifically chose not to format the book as a workbook. Instead, she decided to work with illustrator Dana Regan to convey the emotional challenges presented in the book as part of the main character’s story, and to weave her tools into the plot for wellness offered as solutions. . In doing so, we hope to present these ideas in a way that is more exciting and engaging for younger readers.
“We wanted to write in a way that would be interesting and catch the attention of children,” said Mendez. “We want children to engage with stories, exercises, and characters and say, ‘I can see myself now.'”
“We believe that children learn through stories,” added McCurdy. “When we work with children, I think one of the best ways to teach them is to sit down and read a story together. It’s just a step further into a more action approach.”
Similarly, McCurdy and Mendez specifically chose not to use diagnostic labels to describe the challenges faced by each child in the book. She uses words like “zipping,” “jing,” and “tangle” to describe her thoughts.
But this book is just the starting point for their grand vision. McCurdy and Mendez hope to further engage and empower children through the Kids Can Club website. This website teaches children how to start a support club with the support of trusted adults such as parents, teachers, and counselors. As club members, children make pledges, organize their own clubs, support missions, and report successes.
“What we wanted to do with the club is to expand children’s learning in books,” said Mendez. Pledges allow us to bring the exercises and solutions from the book into the club, so kids can take what they learn and put it out there.”
The pair plan to release additional books spotlighting various kids in the club. They all grapple with different emotional issues.However, they have learned that the book publishing process is a long and arduous one, and that life moves quickly. In addition, we plan to publish additional content on the Kids Can Club website, including mini stories, games, videos, and coloring pages. To stay timely, they also plan to publish seasonal content as well, such as gratitude lessons around the holidays, for example. It has been.
“How we see the website is this ever-evolving tool that helps teachers and parents work with children and identify different emotions,” McCurdy said. increase. “By helping others, we help ourselves. For example, Clementine’s thoughts were zipping with a zip, and she was just overwhelmed, but then she learned this tool.” has this clarity and is like, “Oh my god, I want to share that with my friends.” Now, if we could teach our children to be such people and citizens, the world would be a better place. ”
“Clementine Unstuck!” Available from Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop, Left Bank Books, Target and more.
Short URLs: https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=94976
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