Emma Cahill is an Irish primary school teacher who self-published a picture book in 2019. Illustrated by Paul Nugent, ‘Under the Mask: Recognising and dealing with sadness, anger and worry’ is about a group of masked heroes who reveal their own vulnerabilities to a young boy and teach him and the readers to cope with challenging emotions. It was recommended to families by Pieta House, Ireland’s leading suicide and self-harm prevention service.

In 2020, when we all ended up wearing masks, Emma and Paul released a short book for free in PDF form called, ‘Under the mask: inside feelings.’ It’s designed to specifically help children cope with their sadness, anger and worry during lockdown. I thought it’d be great to have a chat with Emma through Twitter DMs about her books, her motivation to write them and the value of both reading and emotional literacy for children.

So here we go…

If you’d like to know more about Emma Cahill’s work (and download the free ‘Under the Mask: Inside Feelings’ pdf) then go to emmacahill.ie You can purchase the original ‘Under the Mask’ picture book from Amazon. You can also find Emma on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. She’s a busy lady!

And let’s not forget the illustrator! Learn more about Paul Nugent’s great art work on his website!