Tide Pool Troubles Series Launch

This May, the Incubator is proud to congratulate Ashton Body, a 2024 Harvard College graduate and former Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI) intern, on the publication of her new book series, Tide Pool Troubles: A Worry Series, which aims to provide children, caregivers, and educators with resources and strategies to address youth mental health.

The book series, which includes Bluie’s Big Worries, Florence’s Worrisome What-Ifs, and Tilly’s Worry Wings, is the product of nearly three years of planning, piloting, and collaboration between Body, Incubator staff, and other stakeholders.

The seed for this project began when Body took GHELI Faculty Director Sue J. Goldie’s General Education class, World Health: Challenges and Opportunities, in Spring 2022. For her final project, she created what came to be the first book in her series, Bluie’s Big Worries.

Since completing the course, Body has been working with Professor Goldie, Meg Harding, and other Incubator staff to develop her books along with a set of companion materials for educators and caregivers. Each book now comes with an adaptable curriculum including six activities and a flier to send home with students. Educators interested in exploring more about youth mental health and education can also find a resource pack with materials that informed Body’s curriculum design, a narrative description, narrative bibliography, and videos about Body’s development process, as well as a GHELI resource pack highlighting useful reports, articles, fact sheets, and data on youth mental health in the U.S. and globally. For adult readers who might be concerned about a child in their life, Body also includes a list of resources on where to find help.

The specifics of how to organize these materials were reconciled in April, when Body visited the Incubator from her home state of Florida for a mini residency. During this residency, Body finalized details in preparation for publication and spent time in the studio reflecting on the process of developing and piloting the series and curriculum.

Fleshing out the curriculum was an iterative process, Body said. In the early stages, she spoke with many different key stakeholders, such as librarians, educators, and guidance counselors, to brainstorm ideas, get feedback, and share resources on instructional design. As Body continued to build and revise her curriculum, she began exploring story-inspired activities in the K-5 afterschool program where she works.

“Every time I learn something new when I work with students,” said Body in her reflection video. “I learn what questions they have, what they find interesting, and then I'm able to use that to adaptively change my facilitation, change the activities that I'm designing.”

Eventually, Body was even able to pilot her own curriculum, reading her books aloud and running the activities she planned to include with each one. For example, after reading Tilly’s Worry Wings, Body ran an art activity where students wrote a worry or struggle on one side of a paper feather and on the other side, wrote what they find support in. The experience of piloting her own materials “helped inform the ways in which I write it for educators, and then the ways in which hopefully it will enter classrooms,” said Body.

Body also reflected on how the mentorship she received at the Incubator influenced her work. “Everything that I've done, every stage of iteration or of problem solving has been really touched and really shaped by a lot of the mentors that I've been so lucky to have at GHELI. And I think you can see, if you look at the project, you can see pieces of everyone here in all the different ideas that I've come up with,” said Body. “[The books] definitely would not be anywhere near what they are or probably exist at all without that mentorship.”

Now that the books are published and available for purchase, Body says she feels a sense of gratitude for all the people who lent her support, including students, educators, GHELI collaborators, and her family.  “This series has evolved beyond my wildest dreams and is a testament to all of the support that I have gotten every step of the way,” she said. “It is so surreal to see what started as a sketch on my iPad now enter the lives of young people, and I am humbled and grateful to be able to share this labor of love with students, educators, and caregivers.”

Read more about Ashton: GHELI Intern Awarded General Education Prize

Read more from Ashton on mentorship: They’re on My Team: Mentorship at the Incubator

Find the Tide Pool Troubles books for purchase on Amazon:

• Bluie’s Big Worries
• Florence’s Worrisome What-Ifs
• Tilly’s Worry Wings

Access the Tide Pool Troubles Teaching Pack in our global health online repository to find the accompanying curriculum, resources, and a series of videos on Ashton’s design process.