Fern the Feelings Fox Goes to School
A story about starting school, saying goodbye and finding your feet in a new place, with all the excitement and worry that can bring.
Focus: Starting school and separation
From the Start Books
Books to help children feel understood — and adults understand them better
The Fern the Feelings Fox series helps children explore feelings, new experiences and everyday challenges in a gentle, relatable way.
But Why!? Understanding Your Child's Brain and Behaviours helps parents, carers and educators better understand what may be happening underneath behaviour.
Explore But Why!? · Explore the Fern the Feelings Fox series
For the adults supporting children
But Why!? Understanding Your Child's Brain and Behaviours
Behaviour is often the part we can see. But Why!? helps adults look a little further underneath it.
Written for parents, carers and educators, this practical guide explores how the developing brain, emotions, stress, regulation and emerging skills can influence the way children respond to the world around them.
Rather than focusing only on how to stop a behaviour, the book encourages adults to consider:
- What might be happening for this child?
- What is the behaviour communicating?
- Is there a skill they are still developing?
- What support might make things easier?
- How can the adults around them respond more consistently?
How to use this book
This isn't a book designed to be read with children. It is a resource for the adults supporting them.
Parents and carers can use it to make sense of patterns, reflect on difficult moments and think about practical ways to respond.
Educators can use it to support reflective practice, staff discussions and professional learning around behaviour, regulation and development.
Individual chapters can also be used as a starting point for conversations between home and school, helping the adults around a child develop a more shared understanding.
The ideas in the book can also be built on through From the Start parent support, educator consultation, observations, workshops and professional learning.
About the Authors
The Fern books are written by Jodie and Fern Moar, a mother-and-daughter team who created the stories together to help children explore emotions, new experiences and everyday challenges in a way that feels gentle and relatable.
Jodie brings her background in child development, paediatric nursing and family support, while Fern brings the child's perspective, ideas and imagination that help keep the stories authentic and engaging for young readers.
Together, they create stories that are designed not just to be read, but to open up conversations between children and the adults supporting them. Read more about Jodie
Books to share with children
Meet Fern the Feelings Fox
Gentle picture books that help young children explore feelings, new experiences and brave moments through stories they can understand. Written by Jodie and Fern Moar, the series gives children language for emotions while creating natural opportunities for connection and conversation with the adults reading alongside them.
How to Use the Fern Books
The Fern books are designed to help children explore emotions, new experiences, confidence, friendships and everyday challenges through familiar stories and gentle conversation.
They can be used at home, in classrooms, early learning settings or during individual support to help children build emotional language, reflect on experiences and talk about what might be happening for them.
- Read together and pause for discussion
- Use during group time or wellbeing lessons
- Ask children what Fern might be feeling or noticing in her body
- Connect the story to children's own experiences
- Use drawing, writing or role play to extend the conversation
- Revisit a story when a similar situation comes up
For educators: Educators can use the stories as a gentle starting point for conversations about emotions, regulation, confidence, friendships and coping with new experiences.
Fern the Feelings Fox: Fern Tries Something New
A story about approaching unfamiliar experiences, uncertainty and building confidence when trying something for the first time.
Focus: New experiences and confidence
Fern's Camping Adventure
A story about excitement, overstimulation and finding ways to settle when a big experience starts to feel like too much.
Focus: Big experiences and settling
Fern's Brave Adventure
A gentle story about trying something that feels difficult and building confidence through small brave steps.
Focus: Bravery and small steps
Fern the Feelings Fox: Rainbow of Feelings
A story that helps children notice, name and understand different emotions and how they can feel in the body.
Focus: Naming feelings and body cues
Fern the Feelings Fox Activity Pack
Gentle printable activities to go with the books, including Rainbow of Feelings, Feelings in My Body, My Calm Tool Box and the Brave Ladder. Try the free Five Finger Breathing sheet first.
Language for feelings
Stories give children words for what is happening inside them, long before they can explain it themselves.
Connection while reading
Reading together creates a calm, unhurried moment where conversations about feelings can happen naturally.
Practice before the moment
Children rehearse brave and wobbly moments in a story first, which makes real life feel a little more familiar.
Go beyond the story
The books can be a starting point. From the Start can support educators and families to build on the themes within them through professional learning, classroom or child observations, consultation, parent support, workshops and downloadable resources — practical strategies tailored to the child, class or setting.
Explore Educator Support · View Resources · Learn About Parent Support