Happy July! Today I’m thinking about bravery.
How do you explain what it means to be brave?
What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
When I was a little girl, playing hide and seek felt pretty brave to me because what if I picked such a good place that no one were to find me? Worse, what if they didn’t try? Imagine the weight of that worry.
Author: Trudy Ludwig
Illustrator: Patrice Barton
Publisher: Knopf Books For Young Readers
Birth Date: June 28, 2022
Suitable for: ages 4-8
Themes: anxiety, fear, bravery
Brief synopsis: Camila worries. About everything. What ifs here, I can’ts there, I’m scareds everywhere. So it should come as no surprise that Camila is almost paralyzed with fear when the teacher announces a Field Trip to the Aquarium. On the big day, when she sees a classmate hiding from his own anxieties, will she find that her brave is bigger than her fears?
Opening pages:
Most kids love hide-and-seek. Not Camila. She just likes to hide.
In the back of the book, Trudy gifts us with discussion questions
as well as a list of recommended reading for kids.
Find out what worries your learners are holding on to.
What scares them? What do they worry about?
When was the last time they felt brave?
I especially love the page in the book where we discover that
Camila is very brave, “she just doesn’t know it yet.”
I can totally see that positively influencing young readers.
In my work with children who are anxious, I’ve found the “what if-what then?” strategy, which invites them to share what scares them and unpack their worst-case scenarios, to be very effective when they’re ready.
Need some more ideas? Here’s a throwback from a decade ago that
for the other PPBF picks before we break until the next school year.
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