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.
When my children were little, we did Joy School and No Peas For Nellie was recommended by them. I think it was for the joy of decision making. But in the end I think we’ve liked this book for so long because it’s funny.
ages 0 to about 4 years
Read MoreMrs Noah watches Noah building an ark in the middle of a drought and does what many a wife has done – smiled indulgently, sniggered a bit about her husband’s eccentricities and continued on her merry way.
But when Noah starts collecting giraffes, Mrs Noah starts thinking and decides that just in case Noah is right she might as well start collecting fruit and vegetable seed and cuttings.
And then she really gets on board!
Read MoreAge guide: 2 to 8 years & grown-up
With the friendliest looking boa constrictor ever greedily gobbling children on a nature walk with their teacher (it’s pink and green instead of the usual yellow and green or brown) – this is a joyful and funny book. It’s especially funny if you could possibly be one of the people the book is inscribed to: ‘all absent-minded parents and enthusiastic teachers’.
Which I imagine covers most adults at one time or another.
This is the story of a school nature walk gone horribly wrong, then most satisfyingly redeemed.
Read Moreages 2 to 8 years
This is a rollicking book—so much fun to read and so much fun to look at. The story is an adapted Danish folktale and the fabulous illustrations reflect that. It’s the story of Goodie, a plump and obviously happy woman, who is making sausages to store up for her family—she makes hundreds of them and has to hang them from every nook and cranny. Inevitably, funny happens!
I don’t normally like books that overtly teach. I prefer the teaching part to settle gently in the recesses of small minds ready for them to catch and adapt as life throws circumstances to them that don’t quite match the books they’ve read. Mile-High Apple Pie is an exception - there's the obvious, plus much more.
ages 4 to 12 years
Read Moreages 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.
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
A conversation about books + kids. A website resource and book reviews for educators, parents, grandparents. The main focus is emotional resilience.
