Books that promote self-awareness in students

[FaithWright]

"Millie Fierce" by Jane Manning

This book is about a little girl named Millie who gets tired of always being overlooked and taken advantage of by her friends. She then decides to become fierce. Millie changes the way she looks, her attitude, and begins to act out for attention. When she first starts doing these things, it works, but she finds out that people start to avoid her. Millie learns a valuable lesson that her actions have consequences and that being mean is not the way to become noticed.

This book shows students that you do not have to become a mean person to be noticed and to also be kind, but do not let others push you around. Reading this book to children will help them to understand how to be respectful to others, but also be able to stick up for themselves.  Becoming a successful reader takes time and practice and with this book, it can help do just that. With some vocabulary words that are used in this story, it can help students feel confident in their reading.

https://youtu.be/lUvaVMDoWj0?si=k-BXc5-UmWz_t8SI

"Big Feelings" by Alexandra Penfold

This book helps teach children how to handle the big feelings they experience daily. This rhythmic book walks children through the various types of emotions like frustration, overwhelm, and disappointment and how to positively navigate each of these feelings.

Teaching students skills such as compromise, understanding, and talking things through is a good way to support personal growth in students. This book also helps students to respect others and their big feelings. To some, feelings might not be so big to them, but students will learn from this book to respect others' feelings and that they might be a big deal to them. Reading this book can help your students feel and become successful readers with the rhythmic tone of this beautiful book and the story that it tells.

https://youtu.be/5qjCQNE1NPo?si=hhinQQJbVYCjN3jN

"Enemy Pie" by Derek Munsen

Everything was perfect until a boy named Jeremy Ross moved down the street. Jeremy is the neighborhood enemy, but thankfully, a father to another child who lives on the same street has a unique recipe for getting rid of enemies. Do you want to know the secret? It's spending time playing with the enemy. 

This funny but sweet story teaches kids the best way to get rid of an enemy is to turn them into your friend. This will help students find personal growth in being kind to others. Reading this book to our students teaches them kindness, courtesy, respect, and friendship and is perfect for helping students learn how to deal with conflict.

https://youtu.be/x2FoGf__Fx0?si=znz7iLDwQz3vXxYg

Every child needs to learn about self-awareness and how important it is to teach our students to be respectful to themselves and others. The world can be a cruel place but it helps our students to have teachers that want to be there for their students. Every child matters!