Imagination is cool.

As we enter yet another heatwave and the temperatures are set to rise again, I started wondering whether imagination can help us cool down.

We all know that reading can take us somewhere else. But can it also change how we feel? Could a story set in snow, ice, mist or rain offer a kind of mental escape from the heat?

A good book can move us out of the room we are in. It can take us to a frozen forest, a windswept beach, a mountain path or a rain soaked street. For children this is one of the greatest gifts of reading: it opens a door into another world, one they can step into whenever they need a change of scene.

There is even some evidence imagination and sensory language can affect how we experience things. When we read vivid descriptions of cold, snow, rain or shade, our minds do not simply process the words - they begin to picture and feel them.

Here are a few "cool reads" for hot days:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis.

The Snowman - Raymond Briggs.

The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats.

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman.

The Snow Spider - Jenny Nimmo.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken.

The Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg.

On a hot day, reading about snow will not replace a fan, a cold drink or shady room, but it might give the imagination somewhere cooler to go.

For more books about winter and snow - https://www.booksfortopics.com and https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk both provide plenty of ideas for children who want to escape into a cooler world.