Child Esteem

Does the idea of meeting new people make you nervous? Do you worry you won’t know what to say to someone you’ve just met? You’re not alone. In this Pebble Emerge book, explore the reasons why making new friends can be scary and discover simple tips for facing this fear. Reassuring facts provide the knowledge young listeners need to face their fear of making new friends.

Kamilla is an amazing singer, but she refuses to try out for the school musical. She simply can't stand the thought of everyone staring at her, when she sees herself as overweight. Led by her mom, Kamilla sees a doctor who tells her she's a healthy weight but encourages her to exercise to feel better, both physically and mentally. Will Kamilla's new habit lead to big changes, or is she stuck waiting in the wings forever?

Who are you? How do the identities you hold—like your racial or gender identity—impact you every day? How do they impact others? These big and important questions are key to understanding ourselves. Part of being your true self means learning about group identities and how they affect our experience of the world. With kid-friendly explanations of key ideas and relevant scenarios, this text will help young kids explore their identities and how it shapes their experience.

The determined Little Blue Engine is back, bringing inspiring and enlightening words of wisdom to graduates of all ages as they make the transition from one phase of life to the next. I Knew You Could! provides familiar comfort in changing times and will be treasured for years to come. Listeners will revisit the story again and again as they move forward along life's path. From "I think I can" to "I knew I could", The Little Engine that Could helps kids of all ages realize that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it!

The first children’s book from multi-genre artist Brontez Purnell, a 2018 winner of the Whiting Award, sweetly portrays a common but rarely narrated childhood experience - having a single parent and taking care of a younger sibling. The Nightlife of Jacuzzi Gaskett recounts 11-year-old Jacuzzi’s evening activities while he cares for his baby brother and waits for mama’s arrival home. He ponders his dad, school, and his future - and when his brother wakes up, Jacuzzi knows just how to get him back to sleep.

Kids have been picking on 14-year-old Harold ever since he can remember. They stare at him and call him "maggot" or "ghost boy" because he's an albino. Even his mother seems angry and withdrawn when he's around.One day the circus comes to town, and Harold runs away to join it. When Fossil Man and Princess Minikin accept him into their family, he feels that he has at long last come home.

What are the rules for developing and maintaining friends? How do you interpret cues from body language? What keeps a conversation going the best? Similar to mastering multiplication tables, social skills are something that all children must learn. Fortunately, this book's 150 excellent exercises and activities make learning social skills super fun.

Apple has always felt a little different from her classmates. She and her mother moved to Louisiana from the Philippines when she was little, and her mother still cooks Filipino foods and chastises Apple for becoming “too American.” When Apple’s friends turn on her and everything about her life starts to seem weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music. If she can just save enough to buy a guitar and learn to play, maybe she can change herself. It might be the music that saves her . . . or it might be her two new friends, who show her how special she really is.

How Much Is a Little Girl Worth? is Rachael Denhollander's tender-hearted anthem to little girls everywhere, teaching them that they have immeasurable worth because they are made in the image of God. Armed with this understanding, girls will develop confidence in their own value and blossom into women who can face any challenge life puts in their path. This powerful message will make you want to snuggle up with your little girl and remind her of how precious and treasured she is.

Lexie and her cousin Eleni are super-crazy-mega-extra-seriously close. They're like twins who aren't actually twins, if that's possible. But when Lexie tells a terrible, jealous lie, her whole family is split apart. It's up to Lexie to bring them all back together and fix her relationship with Eleni. After a few calamitous escapades, Lexie has discovered that there are all sorts of truths and all sorts of lies too.... But when is the truth more hurtful than a lie?

In the series finale of Maz Evans' best-selling Who Let the Gods Out? series, Elliot faces his darkest period yet. As well as facing up to his fears, he realises that the future of mankind - and the survival of everything he holds dear - is at stake. But can a bunch of misfit gods, a lost constellation and a mortal boy stand up to the daemon hordes?

Fifth grader Patrick Lowe loves to draw. While he fills sheet after sheet with beautiful drawings, he imagines he is the indomitable White Knight, far removed from the problem that haunts him at school: he can't read. When he tries, the words blur, and he feels like he's suffocating. As a result, many of Patrick's classmates think he's stupid - and Patrick believes them.

Yes, there really is a Normal, Illinois. Charles Harrisong should know; he was born there. But life is difficult for Charles because his family isn't normal. They're poor, for one thing. They stand out, which is the worst thing. After an ugly incident at school, Charles and family leave Normal and begin an adventure that takes them to a houseboat that just might be their new home. And Charles begins a personal journey within his own heart; one that will ultimately deliver him both from and to himself.

Cody Lee Carson leaves his old self behind as he starts at a new school for his fifth-grade year. The new Cody is a brilliant author who keeps a journal to record this stunning transformation, but changing is not easy. Has Cody really left his old self behind?

Author of the award-winning Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel, Leslie Connor has also won great acclaim for ,i>Waiting for Normal. Addie's life has always been all or nothing. And now that Dwight and mommers are divorced, Addie's stuck in a tiny trailer on a Schenectady corner with a mom who's rarely there. Finding friendship at the gas station across the street, Addie clings to the ever-dimming possibility that one day she'll have a normal, happy home.

Alice is ready for eighth grade, but she isn’t ready for this summer. All her friends are spending their days swimming in the neighborhood pool - all of them except Alice. Somehow neither curiosity about her widowed father’s new girlfriend nor the thrill of reading a forbidden book can distract her from her greatest fear: the deep end of the pool. Brimming with high spirits and courage, Alice the Brave tackles some of the biggest problems of growing up: conformity, popularity, and independence.

ALA notable author Iain Lawrence pens a moving tale with a Dickensian atmosphere about a young man's life aboard a cruel 19th-century prison ship. 14-year-old Tom Tin is forced to scavenge on the grimy streets of London after his father is sent to debtor's prison. Tom's survival is threatened by the sinister lowlifes that inhabit his hopeless world. But when he is unjustly arrested for murder, he finds a place that is even worse than the dark city streets.

Author Elizabeth Atkinson’s debut novel for middleschoolers was included in the Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of 2009. I, Emma Freke tells of one girl’s search for her identity. Smart and shy, Emma is as close to normal as her family gets. Still, she has a terrible time fitting in at school—and things only get worse when Emma attends her family reunion. Soon, she realizes that she’s better off being herself than someone else’s Freke.

Before Stinkville, Alice didn't think albinism - or the blindness that goes with it - was a big deal. Sure, she uses a magnifier to read books. And a cane keeps her from bruising her hips on tables. Putting on sunscreen and always wearing a hat are just part of life. But life has always been like this for Alice. Until Stinkville.

For most girls, sleepaway camp is great fun. But for Amy Becker, it's a nightmare. Amy, whose home life is in turmoil, is sent to Camp Takawanda for Girls for the first time as a teenager. Although Amy swears she hates her German-immigrant mother, who is unduly harsh with Amy's autistic younger brother, Amy is less than thrilled about going to camp. At Takawanda she is subjected to a humiliating "initiation" and relentless bullying by the ringleader of the senior campers.