The Books We Needed Once Upon a Time
By Haley Graham
Many of us readers started off as little bookworms, learning our first words from Dr. Seuss and getting lost in The Magic Tree House. Now that many of us are old enough to craft stories of our own, so many folks have used their creative genius to teach a new generation of children skills that we wish we had been taught when we were little. These kid's books are some of our very favorites that find unique ways to explain to children the messy process of being a human being on planet Earth.
For many of us life-long readers, it started when we were very young.
We saw something of ourselves in Junie B’s spunkiness, in Percy Jacksons’ anxieties, in Eloise’s self-assuredness. We learned our first words from Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle. We wept aloud at Love You Forever, then Bridge to Terabithia, then The Hunger Games. As a late-90s baby, I hold Judy Moody responsible for a substantial amount of my personality.
Whether you spent evenings past your bedtime reading because you were determined to beat each and every sucker in your class at the Accelerated Reader competition or because you felt your closest allies lived within the pages, many of us share that similar experience of getting lost in a little world all your own.
It’s no secret that a love and respect for literature starts young, which is why the Children’s Book industry is known for its high level of saturation. Almost anyone can write a kid’s book, the assumption goes.
But the demands in children’s literature have changed since the early 2000s when I was a school aged child, who peeked casually into my desk to read snippets of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret when the teacher wasn’t looking. Only so many books stand out from the pack, and new approaches to parenting, school mental health, and child development have adapted the books that people want to see. As the world changes, what we prioritize teaching our children also changes. The dial of society moves, and our literature of the day often reflects the values of an era. You want to find what a community holds most important? Look to see what they’re teaching their children.
Because I work at an elementary school, much of my day is spent in the world of children’s literature. It’s become a slow passion of mine, finding books that will reignite a love of reading in students who are bored to tears after 3.5 sentences.
The Not-So-Friendly Friend: How to Set Boundaries for Healthy Friendships by Christina Furnival
One of my most read books with students? The Not-So-Friendly-Friend: How to Set Boundaries for Healthy Friendships by Christina Furnival.
I grew up on the cusp of the cyberbullying era, and bullying prevention rhetoric was everywhere, yet no one had thought to teach any of us how to appropriately set boundaries. They said, “Don’t bully!!!” and assumed that we knew other ways to handle conflict or disagreement. Now my students use it as a model to guide their conflict resolutions.
Far Apart, Close in Heart
Much of what we often refer to as adults as common sense, kids need to be explicitly taught. Books like When Someone Dies by Andrea Dorn give kids concrete visuals for experiences that are unknown and scary. Far Apart, Close in Heart, a book about parental incarceration, explains the basics of complex legal jargon that kids may hear when a parent is involved in the judicial system.
Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care by Jennifer Wilgocki and Marcia Kahn Wright
Maybe Days helps affected children navigate foster care and empathize with the complex emotions that children in the system experience.
Adventures at the Hospital walks through the basics of a doctor’s appointment to help kids know what to expect. And series My Dragon feature the quintessential duo of Drew and Diggory Doo on their quest to teach Diggory lessons about giving personal space, following directions, being safe online, and practicing good hygiene.
We’re reading books like We Listen to Our Bodies by Lydia Bowers and practicing emotional regulation using real skills. These are all books that were designed to close a gap for students who may have needed that information and didn’t have another way to learn it. Books like We Listen to Our Bodies are also important for another reason: unlike many of the books of my youth, diversity is an important element in children’s literature today.
The Proudest Blue by Ibtijaj Muhammad
It’s important to every student that I work with that they are represented in the stories that I read to them, and books like this one ensure that numerous demographics are represented. We read things like The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad to tell a story of bravery, empowerment, and hijab.
Nina by Traci N. Todd
Stories like Nina by Traci N. Todd showcase adversity and embrace uniqueness.
This past Black History Month, we read so many beautifully illustrated, well-crafted books about black legends in all forms, including books that weren’t as accessible as they are now. I enjoyed books like Born in the Water and Hidden Figures as much as my students did.
Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder
Another book that I love with incredible art and incredibly inclusive representation is Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder.
Not only does this preach about of body acceptance, it encourages readers to love and respect their bodies, and to challenge a society designed to make people hate their bodies for profitas. When I was growing up, my perception was that people either never thought of their bodies, hated their bodies, or were desperately seeking to control their bodies; no one just… loved their body?
I wonder how much this would have meant to many of us who were raised by almond moms or who never felt quite at home in their skin. This book shows birthmarks, open heart surgery scars, vitiligo, body hair, dimpled legs, gapped teeth, physical disabilities and facial deformities with the universal message of, And what of it?! This is still an awesome body! Feder’s revolutionary book showcases these people—fleshy bellies and wheelchairs and moles adorning scraggly hairs—engaging in that revolutionary act that is respecting yourself as you are.
I want my students to fall in love with reading because they see themselves in the stories we share. I want them to experience the magic that reading can give you early on, a magic that many of us spend our adult lives trying to experience again. If children’s literature is where we can look to see the values of an era, what values are we as adults prioritizing for our kids? Belonging? Acceptance? Equity? Peace? These are difficult concepts to navigate in adult conversation, let alone to explain to children. The books that I’ve mentioned here,, and countless others, use art as a way to speak to kids in a language they understand about the world they live in. If children’s literature is any indicator of what our kids will hold close to their heart, I think that’s very good news.