Child Esteem

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.

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?

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.

Jimmy loves reading so much that he's inspired to start a book company for kids -- run by kids. It's a big dream for a twelve-year-old boy. Some would even say it's laugh-out-loud ridiculous!

I wrote this book because it is the book that I needed when I started my journey to both understanding and overcoming my traumatic past. When I started I never expected what it would become. The short version is this: I come from a dark place, my ACE score is 10, and I attempted to take my own life twice, not to mention being morbidly obese and a drug addict at 12 years old. Today, I am happy, healthy, and driven towards being my best self every day. Why? Because I choose to Think Unbroken.

First time I saw her was in the mirror on my locker door. I'd kicked my swim gear onto the bottom shelf and was reaching to the top for my calc book when she opened her locker across the hall. She had a streaked blonde ponytail dangling out the back of her baseball cap.... We slammed our lockers in unison and turned. Her eyes met mine. "Hi," she said, smiling. My stomach fluttered. "Hi," I answered automatically. She was new. Had to be. I would've noticed her. She sauntered away, but not before I caught a glimpse of her T-shirt. It said: IMRU? Am I what?

Vashti thinks she can draw, but her journey of self discovery and expression is an enchanting invitation to everyone to explore his or her own creative spirit.

Unfortunately, unlike his siblings, Arthur hasn't broken a single, solitary world record! But when the Whipples suffer a spate of catastrophes and a curious amount of attention from a pair of irregularly sized and unusually menacing clowns, Arthur might be the only one who can save his family from losing their collective crown… or worse.

One morning, deep in the forest, a beautiful baby panda was born. The panda was different to all the others, as he had dazzling orange fur. Meet Marmalade, the little panda who goes on a big adventure as he sets off to explore the forest one day to find where he belongs. Along the way, he meets all sorts of animals...until he sees he has come full circle and is back home with his mum, which is where he always did belong, of course!

From the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Notable and Charlotte Huck Honor Book Forever, or a Long, Long Time comes a moving own-voices story that shines a light on how one girl’s learning differences are neither right nor wrong...just perfectly individual.

It’s Lolis’s first day of school, and while she should have been playing games and making new friends, Lolis instead feels overwhelmed. To pass the first grade, Lolis needs to learn English. But, as a second language learner, Lolis feels alone and hopeless. It’s up to Lolis to learn a second language, pass the first grade, and conquer the impossible all on her own. But maybe the impossible isn’t as untouchable as she thinks.

In this story based on the author's childhood, a young Black boy confronts his first experience of overt racism. In recounting the events to his grandfather, the young narrator asks: “How can she hate me when she doesn’t know me?” Grandpa offers wisdom and encouragement to the child, reminding him that another person’s hate does not change the fact that he is loved and that he matters. Tyler Merritt presents a message of love and acceptance that will resonate with young listeners and offer a starting point for conversations about racial equality between parent and child.

Far from the owls of Ga’Hoole, a war is brewing. A bear cub has been snatched by a wolf - an unthinkable betrayal of the peace that has long existed between the wolves and grizzly bears of the Beyond. The bears are massing, roaring for revenge. The wolves claim to be innocent, but they must either fight back or face total annihilation. For Faolan, a young wolf raised by a grizzly bear mother, the threat of war starts a terrible race. Somewhere in the honorable wolf clans hides a traitor, and Faolan must stop him and rescue the lost bear cub before it’s too late.

In The Warrior's Heart, an adaptation of his best-selling memoir, The Heart and the Fist, Eric Greitens brings his adventures to life, sharing stories of friendship, struggle, and hard-earned wisdom. This remarkable book will inspire listeners to live every day with compassion and courage.

Marcus Rashford MBE is famous worldwide for his skills both on and off the soccer field—but before he was a Manchester United and England soccer player, and long before he started his inspiring campaign to end child food poverty, he was just a kid from Wythenshawe, South Manchester. Written with journalist Carl Anka, You Are a Champion is packed full of stories from Marcus’s own life, brilliant advice and top tips from performance psychologist Katie Warriner. It will show you how to be the very BEST that you can be.

We all want our child to feel confident about who they are and what they do and have the confidence to discover and try new things. But nowadays, children are always faced with many social pressures and opinions of others that it easily affects their confidence and self-esteem. Confidence is very important to a child's happiness, health, and future success. Confident children are better equipped to deal with peer pressure, responsibilities, frustrations, and challenges; and they know how to better deal with positive and negative emotions.

Sasquatch! That's who Judy looks like in her school picture. Antarctica! That's where Judy's been sent three times in a single sour-ball week to chill out. Can Judy's mood get any worse? Well, duh! Of course it can. Unless…it's Backward Day! That means it's time for Judy to turn that frown upside down, make lemonade out of lemons, and be nice to stinky little brothers. Can she stay in a good-not-bad mood for an entire day? How about seven whole days? Will her friends freak out when they see a tidy, on-time Judy who smells like cupcake lip gloss?

Cree singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has been writing and performing her music for decades. She was the first Indigenous person to win an Academy Award (for an original song), the first person to breastfeed on TV (on her recurring role on Sesame Street), and is widely recognized for her activism on Indigenous rights and her powerful folk ballads.

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

Thirteen-year-old Nikki Doyle's dreams of becoming a basketball great feel within reach when she's selected to play on an elite-level club team. But in a league with taller, stronger, and faster girls, Nikki suddenly isn't the best point guard. In fact, she's no longer a point guard at all, which leaves her struggling to figure out who she is and how she fits in.