Children's Books About Broken Bones and Casts
Breaking a bone and getting cast is fairly common, so I was excited to compile a good list of books about this experience. As you read below you will see that each of these books offers a different view point of breaking a bone, some more factual and some more silly. Both angles give children the chance to ask questions, feel less isolated in their experience, and grow in their understanding. I will see it does make me think about writing another book about this topic... add it to the list of potential books someday!
You Can’t See Your Bones with Binoculars by Tireo
This book does an excellent job of being easy to understand, factual, and a little silly. The book takes the reader from the person’s head all the way through their body. Explaining different special things about each bone. If a child injures a bone, this could be a great way to explain which bone they broke, how it relates to the rest of the bones/body, and it the end there is a final page about bone growth and repair that could be helpful to emphasis concepts that your doctor will review. Great for school age.
Lumos Helps with Healing: Battling Broken Bones by Pat McGraw M.D.
This is a children’s chapter book that tells a story of a day with Lumos, a hospital’s pet therapy dog. The dog moves around the hospital with a child life specialist and the book tells about a few patients that they see that day. The focus in this book is Lumos interaction with a child with a broken bone. Lumos helps the child feel more comfortable drinking pain medicine, getting an x-ray and getting a cast. The medical details are on point, and the book talks about them in a way that helps a child see how they could get through hard things. One might wonder if a chapter book is the right thing for an ER, but actually when you go to the ER, a lot of the time you spend a lot of time waiting. If an ER had this book on hand, I could see a parent reading it out loud to their child (ages preschool - upper elementary) as a form of distraction and preparation combined.
Broken Bones and Broken Hearts by Jon-Barrett Ingels
This book is part of the Piper & Enza series that looks to add fun and silly adventures to medical experiences. This story is about Piper’s friend who hurts her leg and has to go to the ER. Piper and her dad come along to help explain things to her. The book is a mix of some medical explanations, some analogies, and some silly stories. There are lots of relatable moments for a child with a broken bone, and it would be fun read for a child going through a similar experience, or any child really. Good for preschool-middle elementary. While currently available on Amazon, I’ve been told that it will soon be added to their FREE app - check it out! (I’ll be sharing some of their other free resources soon!)
What Happens When You Break a Bone? By Samantha Harris and Devon Scott
This book tells the story of two girls out riding their bikes. One girl falls down, and she worries that she has broken a bone. Her father is an orthopedic surgeon. He assures her that her bones are not broken, but this leads to a conversation about what bones do and what happens when a bone is broken. This book describes the concepts in simple words and is in honor of a great black orthopedic surgeon. The book would be good for young children, probably ages 3 through young elementary.
Charlie is Broken by Laura Child
This book is a simple story about a brother and a sister. They are planning a circus show, but the brother breaks his arm. He and his sister struggle with how he can still participate. In the end, the sister comes up with a silly way to get him to help and still be careful with his cast. This book could be good for kids who are bummed after getting cast and worried that they won’t be able to still have fun. It could be a way to start conversations about new ways kids can find to adapt to being in cast for a while. Good for young children through early elementary. (Unfortunately, there is no information in this book about what it was like when Charlie got his cast or went to the hospital)
I Broke My Trunk! By Mo Willems
This book is a silly fun way to find humor in story telling and maybe cope with having a broken bone. In the story, Gerald has a broken truck and tells Piggy the story of how it happened. He tells him lots of crazy things that he did, but none of them led to the broken trunk. Then he ran to tell Piggy about the crazy things and tripped and broke his trunk. This story might encourage a child to come up with a crazy story about how they broke their bone to tell their friends. It might be a way to bring light and laughter to the end of a trip to the ER. Good for young children through middle elementary.
