Growing Kids

Mental health tops the list of concerns for today's kids (and their parents). Keeping up with social trends is exhausting, and real-life friendships can feel risky and hard. Kids also have to contend with constant input from the digital world, which is all too often detrimental to their wellbeing. In this edition, Jennie Allen draws on the insights, truth, and experiences from her New York Times bestsellers Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People to offer a practical guide to help kids form positive habits and connections that are crucial to their mental and spiritual health.

This collection of mindfulness exercises is designed to teach kids techniques for managing their bodies, breath, and emotions. Best of all, these thirty simple, short breathing practices and movements can be performed anytime, anywhere: in the car on the way to the grocery store, during heavy homework nights at home, or even at a child's desk at school. Breathe Like a Bear is sure to help kids find calm, gain focus, and feel energized during the day, while also encouraging families to establish fun and consistent mindfulness practices, whether at home or on the go.

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.

Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class - 5,000 points! Running in the hallway = 10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm - 50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters.

Jake Wind is trying to stay under the radar. Whose radar? Anyone who might be too interested in the fact that he has shape-shifting abilities he can’t control. Or that his parents found him as a ball of goo when he was a baby. Keeping his powers in check is crucial, though, if he wants to live a normal life and go to middle school instead of being homeschooled (and if he wants to avoid being kidnapped and experimented on, of course).

After their scary adventure, Bex and Charlie have sworn never to play Monsters Unleashed again. Then Veratrum Games Corp releases a new augmented reality game featuring aliens instead of monsters, and the best friends just can't resist. After all, everyone loves it, even their science teacher, because it includes real star charts. But when they go to an observatory on a class trip, and open the game near a radio telescope, they get more than they bargained for: real aliens.

Chester has always wanted to become a service dog. When he fails his certification test, though, it seems like that dream will never come true - until a family adopts him. They want him to be a companion for their 10-year-old son, Gus, who has autism. But Gus acts so differently than anyone Chester has ever met. He never wants to pet Chester, and sometimes he doesn’t even want Chester in the room. Chester’s not sure how to help Gus since this isn’t exactly the job he trained for - but he’s determined to figure it out. Because after all, Gus is now his person.

When Lou McNally was last in Stoneybrook, she was the Worst Kid Ever. Now she's back...and Abby is going to be her baby-sitter. She's prepared for the worst, but Lou is a perfect angel. Is the new Lou too good to be true?

Little Dan is an eight-year-old boy who likes to do many things besides waiting. When he finds out that he has to wait a whole week until he visits his grandparents, Dan becomes upset and very impatient. But through interacting with his grandparents, little Dan will learn that he can do and learn many things while he waits.

Hey there, phenomenal young minds! Get ready to embark on an exciting journey filled with positivity, confidence, and loads of fun! This groundbreaking book is specially crafted just for you—amazing young kings and queens—to help you soar high with confidence and pride.

In this beautifully reimagined story by NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek), Native American Lily and English Wendy embark on a high-flying journey of magic, adventure, and courage to a fairy-tale island known as Neverland....

Starting at a new school is scary, especially with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece’s class was deaf. Here, she’s different. She’s sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends.

Bursting with a ton of fun and straightforward exercises that inspire children to think about their feelings, this practical dialectal behavior therapy guide offers an engaging way for parents to help their kids cope with stress and navigate times of emotional difficulty. Balancing a warm and lively approach with proven psychological insights and a collection of easy worksheets, the DBT Workbook for Kids breaks down complex topics into simple language that children of all ages can understand.

Lucas and Clara search for Queen Tasha's missing emerald. On their exciting adventure, they travel to all the main attractions of Wrenly: Primlox (the island of fairies), Burth (the island of trolls), Crestwood (the island of dragons), Hobsgrove (the island of wizards), and the beautiful Mermaid's Cove. King Caleb has promised to reward the person who finds the precious stone, and Lucas and Clara are determined to search the entire kingdom until they find it!

Aisha can’t wait to bond with her unicorn, Silver, and discover his magic! Once they bond, they can graduate from Unicorn Academy and become guardians of Unicorn Island. But huge hailstorms are putting everyone in danger, and the school year might have to end early. Can Aisha and Silver bond and stop the hailstorms before graduation?

Teaching kids about money isn't easy. So let Scott Pape, the Barefoot Investor, do it for you! Scott takes them on an epic, thrilling money ADVENTURE - with fun projects, inspiring stories from 45 kids, rewards and real-life stickers. It's easily the most unique finance book ever written. Kids will roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, and learn the value of a buck the old-fashioned way.

Listeners get a chance to participate in James Patterson's wildly successful Middle School series in this interactive book featuring more than 80 hilarious anecdotes from dueling siblings Rafe and Georgia Khatchadorian - plus dozens of fun-filled activities!

Sticky is a beat-around-the-head foster kid with nowhere to call home but the street and an outer shell so tough that no one will take him in. He started out life so far behind the pack that the finish line seems nearly unreachable. He's a white boy living and playing in a world where he doesn't seem to belong. But Sticky can ball. And basketball might just be his ticket out, if he can only realize that he doesn't have to be the person everyone else expects him to be.

Forget the gold medals, the championships, and the undefeated seasons. When all-star athletes were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Baseball legend Babe Ruth was such a troublemaker that his family sent him to reform school. Race-car champion Danica Patrick fended off bullies who told her “girls can’t drive”. And football superstar Peyton Manning was forced to dance the tango in his school play.

Evan and Jessie Treski have waged a lemonade war, sought justice in a class trial, unmasked a bell thief, and created a professional magic show. Yet for all their skills and talents, both find themselves being singled out this summer for reasons beyond their control.