A group of Year Six pupils from Glencraig Integrated Primary School and Holywood Primary School have co-created a children's book that uses weather to help young people understand their feelings.

The book, titled The Weather Catcher, came about through workshops organised by Action Mental Health. Illustrator Ellan Rankin guided the children to use colours, shapes and textures to represent their emotions over two days.

Eleven-year-old Rafferty said he drew inspiration from colours and elements of nature. He associated sadness with blue and rain. Rafferty, who wants to be an author, said the project gave him a chance to explore storytelling.

Ten-year-old Merryn contributed a cloud to represent anger and grumpiness. She used shapes such as squares for anger and triangles for happiness. Merryn said reading was enjoyable and calming and helped develop her vocabulary.

Edith, aged 10, helped develop the book's message about happiness. She noted that when the weather was nice and sunny, the characters felt happy. Edith said it felt strange to see her drawing in a book.

Eleven-year-old Lizzie said she hoped the book would help young people recognise their own experiences and emotions. She said it was not every day you see a book written by people your age with topics similar to your life. Lizzie described seeing the project come together as surreal.

Eleven-year-old Toby said the book would help people express their emotions. He said expressing emotions was important even when it might feel difficult.

Illustrator Ellan Rankin used Photoshop to make a digital collage from the children's drawings. She said talking about emotions from a young age was very important.

The project came about through the Our Generation Project, which is supported by PeacePlus. David Babington from Action Mental Health described the project as wonderful and hoped it would inspire children to read more books rather than look at screens.

The book was launched on Love Your Library Day, which coincided with Book Week NI.