A Terrible Thing Happened

This is a story about a boy named Sherman Smith who sees something terrible happen. It was something so horrible that Sherman didn't know what to do with it inside himself. He had big feelings about it and no place to put those feelings. When that happened he started to have stomach aches and bad dreams. Then, the feelings really went to work and made Sherman feel mean and mad. When the feelings got so big and mean inside of Sherman, he was lucky to find a special person called a counselor named Ms. Maple. She helped Sherman to tell her about how he felt and what he saw. Telling someone about how awful it was helped Sherman's feelings to calm down inside. We never find out exactly what Sherman saw but the feelings in the story are those of any child who suffers the trauma of violence, sexual abuse, suicide, floods, fires, tornadoes, war, or any other intense and frightening experience. Children can hurt on the inside and not show it on the outside. This is a great tool to use to help children find the words to say how they feel and to ask for the help they deserve. Ages 4 and up