Zoom is a tender Australian picture book about perspective, reframing and resilience. This is a story for every child who has ever come home from school with big feelings, certain that the whole day was ruined.
Tom's day was the worst. His troubles loom like storm clouds, and they're all he can see. He shuts his mum out and retreats into the greyness of it. Then he picks up his grandfather's old-fashioned camera, and as he adjusts the focus, something shifts. With the camera and his mother’s gentle guidance, Tom begins to zoom out from the small, sharp details of his ‘worst’ day until he can see the bigger pictures, and how many of them were actually good.
Written by Dannika Patterson and beautifully illustrated by Ross Morgan, Zoom takes the psychological concept of cognitive reframing and makes it concrete, visual, and completely accessible to young children. The camera serves as the metaphor and the mechanism: when Tom controls the zoom, he controls the view. Books+Publishing called it a touching story and highlighted its universal relatability, noting that everyone has a rough day at some point, and that Patterson delivers the message with compassion through flowing, tender prose. Ross Morgan's illustrations were praised for exploring the subject matter with care and sensitivity.
Zoom was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards in 2025.
An excellent mentor text and read-aloud for kindergarten and lower-to-middle primary classrooms, Zoom supports learning around emotional regulation, resilience, growth mindset, perspective-taking and wellbeing. It's equally at home on a bedroom bookshelf as a gentle conversation-starter between a parent or teacher and a child who's had a hard day and doesn't yet have the words for it. Ideal for children aged 4–9, school counsellors, classroom wellbeing programs, and anyone building a library of picture books about big feelings and emotional resilience.
Zoom is a tender Australian picture book about perspective, reframing and resilience. This is a story for every child who has ever come home from school with big feelings, certain that the whole day was ruined.
Tom's day was the worst. His troubles loom like storm clouds, and they're all he can see. He shuts his mum out and retreats into the greyness of it. Then he picks up his grandfather's old-fashioned camera, and as he adjusts the focus, something shifts. With the camera and his mother’s gentle guidance, Tom begins to zoom out from the small, sharp details of his ‘worst’ day until he can see the bigger pictures, and how many of them were actually good.
Written by Dannika Patterson and beautifully illustrated by Ross Morgan, Zoom takes the psychological concept of cognitive reframing and makes it concrete, visual, and completely accessible to young children. The camera serves as the metaphor and the mechanism: when Tom controls the zoom, he controls the view. Books+Publishing called it a touching story and highlighted its universal relatability, noting that everyone has a rough day at some point, and that Patterson delivers the message with compassion through flowing, tender prose. Ross Morgan's illustrations were praised for exploring the subject matter with care and sensitivity.
Zoom was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards in 2025.
An excellent mentor text and read-aloud for kindergarten and lower-to-middle primary classrooms, Zoom supports learning around emotional regulation, resilience, growth mindset, perspective-taking and wellbeing. It's equally at home on a bedroom bookshelf as a gentle conversation-starter between a parent or teacher and a child who's had a hard day and doesn't yet have the words for it. Ideal for children aged 4–9, school counsellors, classroom wellbeing programs, and anyone building a library of picture books about big feelings and emotional resilience.
