Social Kids

While the jury is still out on how technology affects social skills, one thing is undeniable: being social is a crucial life skill for expressing what you mean and building relationships with others. After all, without strong social skills, you’d often get misunderstood, miss out on making great friends, and prevent others from realizing how awesome you truly are! Here is the good news: Communication skills are a learned skill that can be taught, practiced, and mastered.

Having a pet dragon is very fun! He can sit, rollover, and play… He can candle a birthday cake, lit a campfire, or so many other cool things… But what if your dragon has trouble staying focused? What if he won't pay attention to his teacher in class and often look out the windows watching clouds go by instead? What if he often daydreams when the teacher is teaching? What if he is easily distracted during his soccer game? What if he always has trouble staying on task at home? What should you do? You teach him to focus!

Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people.

Your body is a sacred treasure, a worshipful instrument, and a unique masterpiece! That’s a pretty big deal. But sometimes it feels confusing, awkward, and flawed. The truth is: You and your body, all of it, are important and beautiful, designed especially by God with a specific plan and purpose. Each chapter in Perfectly Unique focuses on a different part of your body and the potential it has for helping grow your faith.

Twelve-year-old Daniel, the new kid in town, soon learns the truth about his nice - but odd - new friends: one can fly, another can turn invisible, yet another controls electricity. Incredible. The superkids use their powers to secretly do good in the town, but they’re haunted by the fact that the moment they turn thirteen, their abilities will disappear - along with any memory that they ever had them. Is a memory-stealing supervillain sapping their powers?

Ridley Pearson brings us the origins of the rivalry between literature's most famous enemies - Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty - told from the perspective of James' observant little sister, Moria. Before James grew up to be a ruthless, remorseless villain, he was a curious boy from Boston, with a penchant for trouble and an acid tongue. Thrown into a boarding school against his wishes, James winds up rooming with a most unlikely companion: a lanky British know-it-all named Sherlock Holmes.

Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. She has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all. What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock.

In this chapter book biography by award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome, listeners learn about the amazing life of Claudette Colvin - and how she persisted. Before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin made the same choice. She insisted on standing up - or in her case, sitting down - for what was right, and in doing so, fought for equality, fairness, and justice.

The Kids Under the Stairs: BenBee and the Teacher Griefer is a funny, clever novel-in-verse about Ben Bennet - who failed the language arts section of the Florida State test - and three classmates who get stuck in a summer-school class. But these kids aren't dumb - they're divergent thinkers, as Ms. J tells them: They simply approach things in a different way than traditional school demands.

A small village in the wilds of Northumberland is rocked by the disappearance of 12-year-old Tammy. With his friend Iggy and the mysterious Hellyann, Ethan teams up with a spaceship called Philip, and Suzy the trained chicken, for a nail-biting chase to get his sister back.

This engaging biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great - the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction listeners. This volume features Anne Frank, whose courage and hope during a time of terror are still an inspiration for people around the world today.

>n Making Grateful Kids, two of the leading authorities on gratitude among young people, Jeffrey J. Froh and Giacomo Bono, introduce their latest and most compelling research, announce groundbreaking findings, and share real-life stories from adults and youth to show parents, teachers, mentors, and kids themselves how to achieve greater life satisfaction through gratitude.

We’re used to assuming that politics stop at the classroom door. Those days are over. Are your kids being indoctrinated in school? Unfortunately, it’s increasingly likely. From “social justice” to critical race theory, and from advocacy and activism campaigns to planned “action weeks", teachers and schools nationwide are abandoning neutrality in the classroom, embracing political agendas and partisan aims, and expecting students to get on board.

Troy Billings, at six-foot-one, 296 pounds, is standing at the edge of a subway platform, seriously contemplating suicide, when he meets Curt MacCrae - and emaciated, semi-homeless punk guitar genius who also happens to be a dropout legend at Troy's high school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Hector Dumble thinks he's dumb. When his dog, Buster, starts talking to him, Hector begins to think he's crazy too. Things become even stranger when Hector learns that his teacher Mr Weazel has a secret identity. How will Hector handle having a dog that can talk and a teacher who wants to take over the world?

Hooray! Music class is underway! As soon as the teacher starts to play his guitar and sing, the kids are whirling and twirling and having a blast. But for one hesitant little music maker, it is all a bit overwhelming at first. This song is a reassuring story about the courage it sometimes takes to try something new and will resonate with children everywhere.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese war planes appeared out of nowhere to bomb the American base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It was a highly secretive and devastating attack: Four battleships sunk, more than 2,000 servicemen died, and the United States was propelled into World War II. In a compelling, easy-to-digest narrative, children will learn all about a pivotal moment in American history.

The clock is ticking for May Li, whose middle-school chess team just earned a victory at the state championship—and with it, a ticket to nationals. What’s even more exciting is that May got an award for being the top female player and a splashy feature in the biggest chess magazine in the country. May should be thrilled. But some of her teammates, including her supposed-to-be-friend Ralph, aren’t too pleased with the attention she’s getting—and they’re even questioning her skills.

Melvin Robinson wants a strong, smooth He-Man voice that lets him say what he wants, when he wants - especially to his crush Millie Takazawa, and Gary Ratliff, who constantly puts him down. But the thought of starting high school is only making his stutter worse. And Melvin's growing awareness that racism is everywhere - not just in the South where a boy his age has been brutally killed by two White men, but also in his own hometown of Spokane - is making him realize that he can't mutely stand by.

In a world filled with kids who seem to have it all figured out, I often find myself feeling like a square peg in a round hole. But you know what? That’s what makes me unique! Each day is like a new episode of my own sitcom, filled with awkward moments and unexpected surprises.