Children books for building resilience

One of the values I hope to inculcate in my children has always been resilience. It is the mental strength to recover from setbacks and the persistence to try again after that. The setback can be anything such as failure, criticism, sickness, death, failed relationship or even family violence.

Other than nagging at my children regularly to recover from small little setbacks they face in their daily lives, and setting a positive example myself (hopefully I am…), I also appreciate children books that help to instil such a value in them.

I am dedicating this post to children books with storylines that revolve around the concept of resilience.  I will add more books as and when I discover more gems.

1. The Most Magnificient Thing by Ashley Spires’s*

I find this book inspiring. A little girl, unnamed throughout the entire book, has a beautiful idea to make the most magnificent thing. But making the thing turns out to be more challenging than she expects. She tries again and again, agonising over how she can make the thing right. And finally, she succeeds. I pretty sure children can relate to her journey and perhaps remember her attempts when they are tackling some tough challenges too.

2. 让人头疼的作业

This is a great selection, especially for children like mine, who don’t like learning Chinese. The words are simple and yet cute and encouraging. The story is about a little bear who has difficulty completing his homework, procrastinates and keeps asking mummy for help. He finally found fun and satisfaction by completing the task himself.

You can find this at the National Library.

NLB Call Reference is Chinese YSY.

ISBN reference:  9787807606000

3. Miss Todd and her Wonderful Flying Machine

“Miss Todd” is a video inspired by Ms Emma Lilian Todd, who is the first woman in the world who designed and flew a plane in 1909. The video won a gold medal at the Student Academy Awards in the Foreign Film Category and went on to win several other significant awards.

The video was so successful that it was adapted into a children book to inspire children worldwide. It has indeed inspired my daughter and me, such that we feel compelled to share our reading here.

Ms Todd grew up in an era where girls were not encouraged to obtain higher education. She had an interest in building planes and flying them. However, no university would accept her. Despite the many obstacles in the way, she displayed a strong and resilience character, and ultimately created a plane and took it to the skies!

The message here is crystal clear – follow your dreams. Persevere when you meet obstacles along the way. Try hard enough, and you will realise your dream.

NLB Reference: English 629.13 POL

Get the book from the Book Depository here*.

4. A House for Hermit Crab

A great book by Eric Carle. This book is excellent for kids facing changes in their lives, for instance leaping from their preschool environment to primary school.

The hermit crab has grown too big for his shell, and he needs to find a new home. Though he felt safe and snug in his old shell, he knew it was time to move on. He stepped out of his comfortable shelter and started looking a bigger house. Although he was frightened, he garnered enough courage to begin searching bearing in mind that he could get eaten up by any hungry fish without his shell protecting him.

Along the way, he found new friends to keep him company and made his new shell a cosy home. However, he soon found himself grew again and had to ditch his newly built house for another shelter.

Get this book from Book Depository here*.

Hope you like my recommendations. Do check back this post once in a while for more suggested reads.

You may also be interested in:

How we get our children to know different countries.

Beautiful children books that celebrate nature

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