BookTrust is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. We focus on getting children reading. Each year we reach 3.9 million children across the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of reading. Spending time sharing books and stories can help parents and carers support their child’s growing, even at a very young age. Our Time to Read campaign is all about encouraging families keep reading together even once their children begin to read independently — and making sure they get all the benefits reading for pleasure offers. How can shared reading improve good mental health and well-being?

First of all, setting aside certain time for just you, your children and a good book will show them that you want to spend quality time together. Side-by-side activities like reading are great chances to improve parent-child relationship and to get them to open up about things on their mind.

Second, if there’s something to do with your little one, a book related to that topic is a great tool to introduce and start a conversation around it. The book can provide structure to your discussion and children will be able to relate to the characters they see in the story. This can help them make sense of their feelings.

Third, there’s nothing like being moved away by a good story. Reading can help children escape into new worlds and can be especially helpful as a way to switch off from the day and deal with stress and worry.

What’s more, choosing a laugh-out-loud book and having a go at all the silly voices and actions is a great way to let loose together. By making story-time fun, you’ll help your child see it as an enjoyable activity that makes them feel really good.

Finally, stories introduce a huge range of feelings and experiences to readers. Reading stories together can help your child to see the world through other people’s eyes. Not only will this help them to better understand their own experiences, it plays a huge role in developing their understanding and allowing them to connect and care for the people around them.

【推荐3】When eight-year-old student Barry writes a story, it is usually about dinosaurs（恐龙）because they’re cool. For 10-year-old Emily, fantasy（奇幻）books are her stories of choice while she has recently written such a story.

These are the kinds of ideas and storytelling skills that Australian writers are hoping to inspire in students getting on Russ the Story Bus, a traveling library that will make its way around schools in western Sydney and New South Wales for the next six weeks. It is one of a number of programs in the Children’s Festival of Moving Stories that started this week. The bus, which has been painted by artist Shaun Tan, has a library full of children’s books that students can take home.

Traveling with the bus each week will be a writer. James Roy, who has written books like Captain Mack and Billy Mack’s War, said much of his inspiration came from what he saw around him. “It’s really easy to think that stories are all about heroes or people who can do great things,” Roy said. “But in fact a lot of the more important stories are kids’ own stories and the things they try hard to deal with every day. I’ve been all over the world talking to kids about writing stories and it doesn’t matter where you go...the same things worry them and the same things excite them.”

This is the third year the Children’s Festival of Moving Stories has been held and the first time that Russ the Story Bus will visit faraway schools. Along with the bus, writer talks will be held at libraries in western Sydney for students.

“The fact that we can visit the schools is good for the children who may come from families where English is a second language and they don’t have many chances to read,” Clare Sawyer, head of children’s programs, said. “We hope the bus can make them think more widely, to think about where stories come from and what stories they can make up for themselves.”

【推荐2】Dopamine, known as the “source of pleasure”, is a chemical that is released in the brain and provides people with a feeling of reward and motivation. Now, China’s young people are seeking to wear that joyfulness on their bodies, giving rise to the fashion craze — “dopamine dressing style”. Mainly characterized by bright colours, this dressing style is described by many Chinese netizens as “healing” and “a mood booster (调压器)”. It is part-fashion, part-mindfulness.

Dopamine dressing is nothing new. In fact, a study published in 2012 found that when participants (参与者) were asked to wear clothing that held some symbolic meaning, their perceived (感知的) confidence increased. The study determined that clothing can have a direct influence on their psychological (心理的) process.

“When we are confident, we are able to exert influence through our confidence alone.” behavioral psychologist Carolyn Mair explained. “When we feel good, we are likely to be perceived as looking good too, as our posture, voice and other nonverbal aspects will be more positive.”

Another 2015 study found that the outfits we wear can directly influence how we think. It suggested that dressing in a certain way can influence the way we make decisions. “What we wear is how we show ourselves to those we interact with — we are influenced by their reaction to it. If we are well received, it boosts our confidence and can ultimately affect our general health and happiness,” Mair added.

In fact, dopamine dressing is different for everyone. It’s about wearing the clothes that make you feel good. It could be joggers and a sport shirt; it could be your favourite pair of jeans; or it could be that dress you were saving for a special occasion. For some, bright colours are what boost their mood.

Colour psychologist Karen Haller said, “Colour is a great way to lift our spirits and boost. our moods in an instant. Our confidence can be boosted when we wear colours that we love and feel good in. We instinctively feel and behave differently around colours because of how we take the colours in through our eyes and through the part of our brain where our emotions reside.”

Ultimately, dopamine dressing is whatever makes you feel good. The most important thing is to have fun with it.