I would love to read this in a bookclub and unpack its deeper meanings. Quick read with a tantalizing premise.

Age: Toddler-Preschool

Delightful story about three firefighting duckies protecting and serving a wacky array of citizens. Repetition and unique characters will make this an excellent read-aloud.

Age: Baby-Toddler
Nearly wordless

A sweet buddy book about Jojo the dog and a his pal, the baby. Happy to help, Jojo hears the baby screaming "out!" from his crib. Eventually clambering his way out of the crib, Jojo and the baby get into all sorts of hijinks around the house. Just a few words throughout invite the reader to talk more about the pictures.

Age: Preschool-1st grade

A sweet and easily digestible (don't eat the baby!) book to share with older siblings to help explain the anatomical changes happening to their mommy during pregnancy. Although its strength lies in its brevity, this is also its weakness. It leaves out the many different paths an inutero baby may take to birth--in vitro fertilization, nonhetero families--or miscarriages. It does briefly mention home births but that is the only "alternative" it provides. Side notes or a 2 page spread on these alternatives would have been an easy solution, but this information is, unfortunately, left up to the parent to include.

Love the pictures and the simple presentation but it is not inclusive.

Update to come in order to provide alternate book suggestions.

Age: Middle school-high school

A beautiful tale of magic unfolding in a young teen girl as a fading memory spell slowly starts to unveil her past. A fast moving plot with distinct characters provide for a truly interesting read--but the ending feels too rushed. Luna fully realizes her enmagiked self and then it feels like the book is over and we don't really get to see her use her powers. I would 100% read a sequel but Barnhill neatly wraps up the ending.

Age: Preschool-2nd grade

Sileo invites readers to pause and take a moment to think, reflect, and just be. Although published by the American Psychological Association, the (not forced) rhyming text and the lovely artwork make this a perfect fit in the picture book collection.

Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

Intriguing side-by-side comparison of a fairytale princess versus a historically accurate princess of the Middle Ages. The story is told without belittling an audience that adores Disney princesses while providing a more accurate depiction of a Medieval princess. Historical accuracies like marrying young and living in not-so desirable conditions are presented gently enough so as not to scare the reader.

The four elements to raising humane children are:
1) Providing information: This can be about a particular subject or generally being inquisitive.
2) Teaching critical thinking: Bring curiosity and skepticism to all information, listening to many points of view and asking questions.
3) Instilling reverence, respect, and responsibility
4)Offering positive choices

Reverence (emotion)-->Respect (attitude)-->Responsibility (act)

Reverence invites us to feel deeply and intimately a profound appreciation for the world, for its people, its animals, its beauty, mystery, and its complexity. It is a powerful emotion that helps foster such qualities of compassion, patience, love, kindness, perseverance, restraint, and honesty. 45

Ask yourself these 4 questions:
1. Am I seeking out and providing important information to my child?
2. Am I teaching my child to think critically?
3. Am I nurturing reverence, inspiring respect, and instilling responsibility in age appropriate ways?
4. Does my child understand that she has choices to improve herself and the world?

Age: Kindergarten-2nd grade
History: Slavery

Weatherford and Christie depict the days of the week for slaves and builds anticipation for Sunday, the one afternoon that slaves were allowed to commune. The artwork was unique and full of movement without being frightening. (Lately, I have seen so much unusual picture book artwork that is nightmare-inducing, so I'm glad to see that it can be done.) The author includes a forward AND an Author's Note to elaborate on the relatively sparse--yet poetic--text. A well-written introduction to the inhumanity of slavery without being graphic and still celebrating the shared cultural get-together of one afternoon.

A beautiful, long, investigative article into how children actually succeed into adulthood. Hint: it's not test taking prowess.

What are the qualities that help define a successful individual, that give them advantage as they enter a more independent lifestyle in college? Persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-control. Paul Tough approached these personality traits across various backgrounds: both advantaged children and children that have grown up in challenging circumstances all around the country. Tough finds that children that learn to manage and learn from failure through the personality traits listed above are much better suited for success in the long run. This ability is something that balances out the inequalities between the haves and have-nots.

Side note: While tests provide nicely packaged results for politicians and colleges, grades are still an indicator of success. Revealing more than mastery of content, grades demonstrate perseverance, time management, and good study habits.

Quotes:

"Parents and other caregivers who are able to form close, nurturing relationships with their children can foster resilience in them that protects them from many of the worst effects of a hard early environment [28]...The early nurturing attention from their mothers had fostered in them a resilience that acted as a protective buffer against stress" (37).

"Wealthy parents today are more likely than others to be emotionally distant from their children while at the same time insisting on high levels of achievement, a potentially toxic blend of influences that can create 'intense feeling of shame and hopelessness' in affluent children" (82).

"Here's one way of looking at character: It can function as a substitute for the social safety net that students at Riverdale [a rich, affluent school] enjoy--the support from their families and schools and culture that protects them from the consequences of occasionally detours and mistakes and bad decisions" (103).

"Not long ago, the United States led the world in producing college graduates, now it leads the world in producing college dropouts" (150).