Self Awareness and Personal Discovery in Literature

[BradleyWalker1]

Literature can be very helpful especially when pertaining to self awareness in younger students.  It's very important for them to understand how to process their feelings and understand who they are.  I have found many books which will help young students with this ability and teach them to use it throughout their lives.  

Who I am:  Words I Tell Myself

This book is an inspirational story about finding oneself when things get bad.  An actual quote from the book is "I am enough".  This book will inspire students to look for their strengths and understand their abilities.  When things get hard for them, they can do things thy never thought possible and make bit through hard times.  It also tells the story of how self-love is important and realizing that what makes you unique is special and important.  This book would be recommended for K-3 to ensure that all students understand the importance of finding themselves and realizing that they already have what it takes to make it through the hard times.

Not Perfect

This book is about Dot, a girl who understands that she is good at a lot of things but is jealous of her brother and her sister and their abilities.  She must create a poster about  person she admires.  She picks her best friend Sam, but no matter how many times she tries, she can't seem to come up with the perfect poster.  Eventually she realizes that she is perfect in her own way and she doesn't have to conform to societies' idea of perfect.  It's a story about self growth and is told from the perspective of a young student.  This book would be perfect for ages K-2 and teaches self growth and self discovery that is a perfect lesson for young students.  It is also a very easy read as it has a lot of pictures and simple sentences.  

You are an Amazing Girl

This is a very inspirational book that preaches he importance of being unique and how you are the only one of you in the world.  It contains many true stories of personal growth and women overcoming adversities and breaking gender roles.  It is a good read for grades 4-6 and teaches the importance of being good enough while also using your unique talents to overcome adversity.  It's very inspirational and written by many real down to earth people.  Very relatable and did I mention inspirational?  It also teachers young students to respect differences by enforcing the idea of uniqueness and differences and even though everyone is different, they all have the ability to succeed.