What to Do When the News Scares You

This updated edition in the bestselling What To Do series can support and guide efforts to help scary news seem a bit more manageable for young people.

Scary news is an inevitable part of life. Whether from television news reports, the car radio, digital media, or adult discussions, children are often bombarded with unsettling information about the world around them. When the events being described include violence, extreme weather events, a disease outbreak, or discussions of more dispersed threats such as climate change or terrorism, children can get frightened and overwhelmed just like adults. This book tackles children’s anxiety and stress around how events are portrayed in the news and how kids might process news to become an informed media consumer. Parents and caregivers can be prepared to help them understand and process the messages around them by using this book.

What to Do When the News Scares You provides a way to help children put scary events into perspective. And, if children start to worry or become anxious about things they’ve heard, there are ideas to help them calm down and cope.

Jacqueline B. Toner, PhD is a clinical psychologist, having earned her PhD from University of Virginia and served as chief facilitator for a medical resources project with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Carnegie Mellon University.

A helpful introduction to what news is — and the various forms it takes….exercises help children become conscious of the way words and images are used to shape stories and our emotional responses.
—The Washington Post

Watch the author demonstrate What to Do When the News Scares You, Revised Editionopens in new window. Interested in this book? Purchase a copy to continue (or start) the conversation with the children in your life.