The college bribery scandal raises the concern that overprotected young children are ill-equipped to face challenges. Here’s advice from Rachel Simmons, co-founder of Girls Leadership and the author of Enough As She Is: How to Help Girls Move Past Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy, and Fulfilling Lives for raising a self-sufficient child.
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The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger
As all the other leaves float off and fly past, Little Yellow Leaf thinks, I’m not ready yet. As the seasons change all around, Little Yellow Leaf holds on to the tree. Still not ready. Will Little Yellow Leaf ever be ready? This is a story about facing the unknown—and about friends who help us take the leap. It is not specifically about the process of dying, but provides a beautiful setup for discussing the process a terminally ill parent or grandparent might go through, and a good jumping off point for talking about facing that unknown.
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner has identified seven distinct intelligences. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research and “documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways.”
How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath (ages 4 to 9)
This book for young readers is based on the premise that each of us has an imaginary bucket that can be filled or emptied by the behavior or actions of the people around us. The message is that we should all strive to act in ways that fill another person’s bucket, as opposed to emptying his/her bucket.
How Full is Your Bucket?: Positive Strategies for School and Life by Tom Rath (ages 9 to 12)
Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, How Full Is Your Bucket? shows how even the smallest interactions we have with others every day profoundly affect our relationships, productivity, health and longevity. This is a version for young readers.
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson (ages 5 to 8)
Clover’s mom says it isn’t safe to cross the fence that segregates their African-American side of town from the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls strike up a friendship, and get around the grown-ups’ rules by sitting on top of the fence together.
amightygirl.com
The world’s largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls
What Does a Princess Really Look Like? by Mark Loewen (ages 5 to 8)
What Does a Princess Really Look Like? is part of the Brave Like A Girl Series. Chloe loves princesses and ballerinas, but she also wants to create a Princess Ballerina that mirrors herself. When Chloe is finished creating her strong, smart, and kind princess, Chloe’s dads pop in to see the final product. They celebrate the girl, their daughter, who is being represented through paper, glue, and jewels.
Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty (ages 4-6)
“This picture book is filled with wit and musings on what it means for a young girl to be beautiful. The illustrations evoke a feeling of uniqueness, independence, and strength, defining beauty through diversity, talents, and passions.” —School Library Journal
I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont (ages 4-6)
High on energy and imagination, this ode to self-esteem encourages kids to appreciate everything about themselves—inside and out. Messy hair? Beaver breath? So what! Here’s a little girl who knows what really matters.
What if Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick (ages 3-7)
If you drop just one soda can out the window, it’s no big deal … right? But what if everybody did that? Using humorous illustrations rendered in mixed media, these questions are answered in a child-friendly way and show the consequences of thoughtless behavior.
Raising Resilience, A Workshop for Parents with Christopher Willard at P.S. 321, December 2018 (video)
Raising Resilience: The Wisdom and Science of Happy Families and Thriving Children by Christopher Willard PsyD
In every spiritual tradition, we find teachings on the virtues and qualities that we most want to pass on to our kids—such as generosity, kindness, honesty, determination, and patience. Today, a growing body of research from neuroscience and social psychology supports these teachings, offering insights into cultivating these virtues in ourselves and in our families. Raising Resilience is a practical guide for parents and educators of children from preschool through adolescence, detailing ten universal principles for happy families and thriving children.
Growing Up Mindful: Essential Practices to Help Children, Teens, and Families Find Balance, Calm, and Resilience by Christopher Willard, PsyD
Growing Up Mindful helps parents, educators, and counselors learn how to embody and share the skills of mindfulness that will empower our children with resilience throughout their lives. With more than 75 accessible exercises and practices, along with adaptations for the individual needs of a wide range of children and teens
Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lee MacLean (ages 4-7)
A meditation therapist’s case for deep relaxation in terms pitched straight at kids with suggestions like visualizing the quieting of one’s mind as the settling of particles in a muddied jar of water.
“The Power of Believing You Can Improve,” Carol Dweck at TEDx
Carol Dweck a pioneering researcher in the field of motivation, explains growth mindset, the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it—or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.
16 Habits of Mind (PDF)
From the Institute for Habits of Mind, whose goal is to create a more thoughtful, cooperative, compassionate generation of people who skillfully work to resolve social, environmental, economic and political problems.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
“One of the most influential books ever about motivation.”—Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock
Growth Mindset Chart (PDF)
A chart that uses the language of growth mindset to encourage children to love effort and change negative language and attitudes toward difficult tasks
How Big is My Problem? (PDF)
A great chart to help children differentiate big problems from little ones.
A Mindset for Learning by Kristi Mraz and Christine Hertz
Kristi Mraz and Christine Hertz provide practical and powerful strategies for cultivating optimism, flexibility, and empathy alongside traditional academic skills. Great lessons on teaching kids, or adults, how to become lifelong learners.
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires (ages 3-7)
For the early grades’ exploration of character education, this funny book offers a perfect example of the rewards of perseverance and creativity.
The I’m Not Scared Book by Todd Parr (ages 4-6)
With his signature blend of playfulness and sensitivity, Parr explores the subject of all things scary and assures readers that all of us are afraid sometimes.
Your Fantastic Elastic Brain (ages 4-8)
This fun and engaging introduction to the anatomy and functions of the brain will empower each young reader to S-T-R-E-T-C-H and grow their Fantastic, Elastic Brain!
What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada (ages 5-10)
A story for anyone, at any age, who has ever had a problem that they wished would go away. It’s a story to inspire you to look closely at that problem and to find out why it’s here. Because you might discover something amazing about your problem…and yourself.
Kazoo magazine, Issue 08: The Magnificent Mistakes Issue (ages 5-10)
Kazoo is an ad-free, award-winning magazine for girls. This issue focuses on the importance of making mistakes and features women experts from Senator Elizabeth Warren to NASA engineer Laurie Grindle. There’s an amazing comic about Julia Child and how she made mistakes all the time and just kept going.
It’s OK to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr (ages 5-6)
Embraces life’s happy accidents, the mistakes and mess-ups that can lead to self discovery. Makes readers feel good about themselves, encouraging them to try new things, experiment, and dare to explore new paths.
Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
A hilarious, irreverent book about doing your own thing. Meet Iggy Peck—creative, independent, and not afraid to express himself! Iggy Peck will delight readers looking for irreverent, inspired fun.
Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
When her great-great-aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) comes for a visit and mentions her one unfinished goal—to fly—Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her aunt’s dream come true. But when her contraption doesn’t fly but rather hovers for a moment and then crashes, Rosie deems the invention a failure. On the contrary, Aunt Rose insists that Rosie’s contraption was a raging success. You can only truly fail, she explains, if you quit.
Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts (ages 5-8)
Champions girl power and women scientists, and brings welcome diversity to picture books about girls in science. Touching on themes of never giving up and problem solving, Ada comes to learn that her questions might not always lead to answers, but rather to more questions. She may never find the source of the stink, but with a supportive family and the space to figure it out, she’ll be able to feed her curiosity in the ways a young scientist should.
Superfail by Max Brenner (ages 8-11)
Twelve-year-old Marshall wants to be a superhero, but his powers always go wrong. He can shoot lasers from his eyes, but they either miss the target or cause more damage. And when you have severe motion sickness, flying is no fun. Marshall and others like him are referred to as “defectives.” But when the villainous Man With No Name tries to destroy the city again, Marshall and The Night Owl, a retired crime fighter, must team up to work with the powers they have, redeem themselves, and save the day.
The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik
“Deeply researched . . . [Gopnik’s] approach focuses on helping children to find their own way . . . She describes a wide range of experiments showing that children learn less through ‘conscious and deliberate teaching’ than through watching, listening, and imitating.” ―Josie Glausiusz, Nature
