WTBA is a collection of and conversation about powerful books that strengthen, elevate, inspire and help to grow powerful, resilient kids. We're a book oriented guide for parents, grandparents, educators, aunts, uncles and anyone involved in nurturing children and caring for friends.
ages 4 years to grownup
Set in Europe, this is one of my absolute favourite books. It's a book to give perspective to small bingles and it's a book to plant notions of empathy, courage, and resilience in children. Definitely one to have in your home library, Let the Celebrations BEGIN! speaks across a wide range of age groups and relates to so many sets of circumstances.
Age guide: 4 to 12
With surrealist pictures and a slightly tense story, this is a charming picture book. Hurricane, the cat, follows the Wrong Thing through the house, trying to protect his family who are sleeping. Until he realises that the Wrong Thing is a Lost Thing.
The Wrong Thing just needed its own place and family.
This is one of my favourite stories about things that seem Wrong being simply out of place. Hurricane worries that 'the big ones would not see it. And the small ones might want to catch it'.
Read Moreages 4 years to grownup
Children’s books about homelessness are hard to find and this one strikes just the right note. Zac and Mandy are homeless, but very far from helpless. Space Travellers is a beautiful book about homelessness, with themes of self-reliance, sharing, making do and so much more.
in / chapter books but good for adults and young adults too
There are obvious Holocaust themes - and the ordinariness of a friendship between two small boys - all made clearer by the lack of flowery descriptions or moralising tones. There are no upper age limits for reading and absorbing this wonderful story.
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Set in Morocco—the baba (father) in this story is telling his little girl about a time when he was a child living in Morocco. There was a drought and his family was running out of food, so they ate less and less each day. Eventually, the gnawing hunger pervaded all of his thoughts ...
ages 4 to 12 years
Make Way for Ducklings is the story of Mr. & Mrs. Mallard and their quest to find a place to nest and then to raise their family of ducklings. It has cult status in Boston, where the duck statues in the public gardens never need polishing because children sit on them so often they naturally keep up the sheen!
Read MoreSunday afternoons we talk. We loll in chairs, go on long drives, lie all over the bed, throw quilts on the grass or linger over lunch – it doesn’t so much matter how, we just talk. On one of those days, in the midst of all the conversation, I mentioned that a friend had asked for advice about some troubles her little girl was facing.
I knew what I would do. I would be reading. I had a couple of picture books in mind; a chapter book and a couple of poems.
Those books weren’t ‘about’ the things troubling this little girl – but they were what I had read to my children when they were facing the same issues.
Read MoreA conversation about books + kids. A website resource and book reviews for educators, parents, grandparents. The main focus is emotional resilience.
