New books will be promoted across the county to support teenagers’ mental health and wellbeing.

Ceredigion Library has received a grant from the Welsh Book Council to promote the 'Reading Well for Teenagers’ scheme across the county.

‘Reading Well for teenagers’ supports the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers, providing useful information, advice and support to help them better understand their feelings, deal with difficult experiences and build confidence.

Chosen by young people, leading health professionals and library staff, the book list is specifically for teenagers aged 13 to 18 and includes a variety of reading levels and formats to support less confident readers and encourage engagement.

Some of the recommended books suggest useful self-help techniques and include personal stories, graphic and fiction formats. To accompany the books, there is also a selection of digital resources.

Emyr Lloyd, Assistant Librarian for Ceredigion said: “Through this financial stream, we as a Library service have provided a set of ‘Reading Well’ books to Ceredigion Youth Service.

“This service provides youth workers in every Secondary School in the county, runs an engagement program with Ceredigion Training, three Youth Clubs, one Youth Van and many other various programs.

“We hope that this package of bilingual books will be valuable tool to the service and will help children and young people in the county.”

Cllr Catrin M S Davies, Ceredigion’s Cabinet member with responsibility for the Library Service added: “The Reading Well scheme is fantastic as it encourages reading as a way of improving mental health and wellbeing. Reading can be a valuable tool to help us gain a better understanding of our mental health so I’m very glad that our Libraries can now offer these books to young people in Ceredigion.”

These Reading Well website says: “Books have been chosen to help you understand your feelings and deal with difficult times.

“You can read the books on your own or talk about them with someone you trust.

“Some of the books include useful self-help techniques.”

Among the topics the reading list covers are mental health, body image, managing feelings, neurodiversity, sexuality and gender and bereavement.