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Sometimes children's books tell you everything you need to know. Matt de la Peña starts his new book, Love, with these words:

In the beginning there is light
and two wide-eyed figures standing
near the foot of your bed,
and the sound of their voices is love.

Love is filled with drawings by Loren Long of the good and the bad of everyday life. It reminds readers that, if you're lucky, you know what love is before you can even say the word; it's around you all the time if you just pay attention.

De la Peña explains where he got the idea for the book.

"Back last year there was so much divisiveness in the country," he says. "And I have a 3-and-a-half-year-old, and I would go into my daughter's room and read to her at night. And I was like, 'How do I, as a parent, as a relatively new parent - how do I transition from the news, which I'm very affected by, to sitting with my daughter and explaining the world to her?' And so I thought, 'Gosh, all I want is I just want to read her a book about love.' "

Long also joins the conversation.

Interview Highlights

On the decision to include darker themes in

De la Peña: I wrote a number of drafts. And it was meant to be just a purely uplifting poem that I could read to my daughter. But there was something hollow about it. There was something that didn't ring true. And what I realized is I had failed to acknowledge any sense of adversity.

So I had to go back in and I had to be real. I had to be honest that there are going to be these things in life that are tough and that are dark. And that changed the poem dramatically.
On Long's illustration of a boy hiding under a piano during a fight between his parents
Long: When I get this manuscript, it's just these words: "But it's not only stars that flame out, you discover. It's summers, too. And friendships. And people." And I'm reading this, and I'm thinking, "I can go in so many different directions." One of my ideas was maybe I'll do like a Norman Rockwell-type scene of children at the end of summer and they're moving away, there's a moving van. Another one would have been, like, maybe the death of a pet or perhaps the death of a loved one, maybe a grandmother. But then I also thought, you know, "I have divorce in my family; I have addiction in my family."

And what I'm illustrating here is a domestic dispute. And if you're reading this book with a child from a wonderfully stable home, great. But that's a way of sharing empathy with that experience. And if you are that child under the piano, you exist in this book.

And what I'd love to point out really quick about this image: There's still a lot of love in this spread. That mother loves that child. That father even loves that child. And he's of course comforted by his dog.
On Long's close-up illustration of a child's face with the words "And the face staring back in the bathroom mirror - this, too, is love."
De la Peña: It blew me away. This is one we talked about a lot when he was doing the sketches and stuff. And I was so excited for this, and we both agreed that this was one of the biggest moments in terms of the idea of the poem as a whole.

I go into a lot of schools as an author, and sometimes I'll go into a very wealthy school and they've had an author before and they know how to do it; they're excited to bring me in. But I'll also go into some underprivileged schools. And occasionally when I'll walk into their school, a little boy or a girl will look up at me and say, "Hey mister, why would you come here?" In other words, they're saying, "Why are you wasting your time on us?" And it breaks my heart.

So I think this moment in the poem - I wanted to just really, like, land on this truth that in order to go out into the world you have to first be able to turn to the mirror and find love in yourself no matter what race you are, no matter what socioeconomic level you're existing in.

So for me, this was a very important moment. But in another way ... this child is also looking directly at the reader and daring you to look away. And he or she is basically saying, "I dare you to ignore my existence."

Long: And for me, as the artist of this book, the reason I felt the big face would be impactful is that it's the only moment like that in this entire spread. You're seeing a lot of scenes and a lot of involved compositions, and when you turn this page I wanted you to stop. So I like to think in terms of cinema, and if I was making a movie, what moments do I want the audience to slow down and think?
Justine Kenin and Melissa Gray produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Sydnee Monday and Nicole Cohen adapted it for the Web.

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Picture Book Author Says 'I Had To Be Real' When Writing 'Love'

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Matt de la Peña's new children's book covers the good and the bad of everyday life. He says, "I had to be honest that there are going to be these things in life that are tough and that are dark."

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new 9/19

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Use these six SEL lessons from The Jed Foundation to discuss critical social and emotional health themes with your class

CommonLit is thrilled to announce that we've partnered with The Jed Foundation (JED) to create social and emotional learning lessons based on their Set to Go resource, which helps students learn about and build important SEL and life skills.

Research shows that SEL lessons and interventions in school curricula positively affect youth development (Taylor, Oberle, Durlak, & Weissberg 2017). That's why CommonLit and JED are working together to provide more SEL content in our digital library.

Student at Washington Leadership Academy in Washington, D.C.

JED is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation's teens and young adults. Their other high-profile programs also include Half of Us, Seize the Awkward, and Love is Louder.

In addition to working with CommonLit on the following texts, JED is collecting pre- and post-lesson surveys to understand the effectiveness of their lessons. To help them in this effort, you can assign surveys to your students before and after teaching a Set to Go lesson. You can find the links to these surveys below.

Head over to CommonLit.org today and check out these six Set to Go lessons:

In this informational text, the author discusses resilience and how a person can become more resilient by creating a strong support system, giving back to others, not giving up during difficult times, having a flexible attitude and optimistic perspective, and by employing humor to relieve stress.

Use this text as an opportunity for your students to discuss and reflect on times when they endured a challenge, and have them point out why their experiences helped them to build resilience.

"Untitled" by Fausto Garcia is licensed under CC0.

What do you do when you get angry or upset? How do you handle your emotions? These are a couple of introspective questions students may ask themselves as they read this informational text about how to effectively identify and manage emotions.

For this lesson, consider showing your students the Related Media video " Welcome Inside My Head " by Zak Sandler, a JED Storyteller. In the video, Sandler describes some of his experiences dealing with his own emotions. Your students can watch the video and then talk about the changes Sandler went through in relation to the text.

In this reading passage, the author explains how a stable self-image helps a person develop positive decision-making skills and maintain good relationships.

Assign this lesson to your students, and pair it with the lesson " Self-Concept," which discusses various psychology concepts and how people think of themselves. Ask your students how "Self-Concept" supports the idea of a stable self-image from "How You See Yourself."

Student at District of Columbia International School in Washington, D.C.

Considering how challenging school can be for some teenagers, it's important to teach students how they can be a helpful resource and caring listener for their peers. This informational text reviews different ways that teens can identify signs of someone who is struggling, listen attentively to what they're going through, and take action to help.

Take this lesson as an opportunity to ask your students if they know who to turn to if a friend needs more help than they can provide. Continue the discussion by reviewing helpful points of contact and resources for teens to consult.

How do people successfully face the challenges of everyday life? This lesson addresses this question and explores what is needed to contribute to emotional well-being.

To go along with this lesson, have your students watch the Related Media video " Time Management " with Dr. Mahlet Endale. Discuss the importance of time management and ask your students how they think they can better manage their time.

"Chopping Ingredients" by Katie Smith is licensed under CC0.

Taking care of ourselves is part of becoming independent. This informational text explores some important self-care strategies and the benefits of practicing them.

When assigning this lesson, pair it with " Evening Screen Time Can Sabotage Sleep " by Ashley Yeager. Ask students to discuss whether they have personal experience with screens interfering with sleep. Have them consider the information in both texts and propose why screen time may be interfering with self-care.

We'd love to hear from you and your students! Tell us your favorite CommonLit texts that address important social and emotional health themes.

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Announcing: CommonLit now offers 6 SEL texts from The Jed Foundation

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Use these six SEL lessons from The Jed Foundation to discuss critical social and emotional health themes with your class CommonLit is thrilled to announce that we've partnered with The Jed Foundation (JED) to create social and emotional learning lessons based on their Set to Go resource, which helps students learn about and build important SEL and life skills.

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talks about the hard topics behind her books Speak and Shout.

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She Spent 20 Years Teaching Teens About Sexual Assault. Now She's Sharing Her Own Story

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Laurie Halse Anderson broke barriers with 'Speak,' a novel about sexual assault. 20 years later, the author is ready to tell her own story.

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Liz Kleinrock: How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics

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When one of Liz Kleinrock's fourth-grade students said the unthinkable at the start of a class on race, she knew it was far too important a teachable moment to miss. But where to start? Learn how Kleinrock teaches kids to discuss taboo topics without fear -- because the best way to start solving social problems is to talk about them.

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Well organized list of emotions

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Inside: Reading these children's books about kindness will teach your child to be a kind and compassionate person. Add these titles to your collection of the best picture books.
As parents, we want to raise kids who grow up to be kind and compassionate and maybe even thoughtful enough to return their grocery store cart to the parking lot corral.

Thankfully, research shows that kids act with kindness and compassion from a very early age - before we ever try to teach them to be kind. For example:

Babies as young as six months old show a clear preference for kind and helpful behavior as opposed to mean behavior.

3-year-olds can actually be great about sharing prized toys with their friends.

When given the opportunity to be kind to others, kids feel happier than if they're doing something that just benefits them alone.

But Then, Something Happens...

Between the time we see our toddlers' first sprout of compassion and the time we send our sweet kiddos off to school:

"Research shows that as they enter school around age five or so, children shift away from their innate altruism toward selfishness."
- Washington Post

But...why five? Why do parents and teachers tend to see a change in kids' behavior around this timeframe?

Because that's when your child is thrown into a big group with other kids, and herd mentality isn't always a pretty sight. Kids start teasing other kids. Showing aggression. Bullying.

This is when kids' innate kindness is put to a real-life test.
Related: The Only Thing You Need for Raising Smart Kids (And Kind Kids, Too)
Here's the Good News

As a parent, you can bolster your child's innate kindness. In fact, when your child is between ages 4 and 7, that's a critical developmental window when their brain is especially open to developing a lifelong kindness habit.

How? According to a report by Harvard researchers:

Kids need to hear from us that kindness is important,

Kids need daily opportunities to practice caring for others, and

We need to encourage kids to consider the perspective and struggles of others.

That may sound like a lot, but we're lucky to have one powerful parenting tool that will knock out all three of those in one fell swoop: children's books about kindness.
Related: 40 Questions That Will Teach Your Kid to Be Kind to Others {Printable}
Why It's So Important to Read Children's Books About Kindness

When we read children's books about being kind and talk to our kids about the stories, this is what happens:

We deliver the message that kindness is important,

We give our kids a chance to practice flexing their kindness muscle, and

We give them an opportunity to put themselves in someone else's shoes.

In other words, reading books about kindness takes care of every one of those three essentials for raising kind kids.

Plus, reading books works way better than lecturing kids on the virtues of kindness.

Lectures typically go in one ear and out the other. But when you read fiction, research shows that the brain reacts the same way as if you were living the story in real life. In other words, reading children's books about kindness is akin to setting up a virtual reality simulation where your child can fully enter the experience and understand different perspectives.
Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents
40 Best Children's Books About Kindness

A while ago, my kids and I spent months putting together a list of the best children's books about friendship, and parents wrote back with sweet notes of gratitude. But they also had another request: What are the best picture books about kindness?

And so my family set out on another months-long research project to find children's books about kindness that both kids and parents will enjoy. (If kids are going to ask us to read it again and again, it may as well be something we'll get a kick out of, too!)

Every week, I put 25 books on hold at the library, plus at every visit I browsed the shelves for even more picture books about kindness. All told, my kids and I read hundreds of picture books on the topic of kindness.

The list below is the cream of the crop from those hundreds of books: the books I loved reading, and the books my kids couldn't get enough of. Read these picture books about kindness, and you'll be priming your child's brain to grow into a kind, compassionate soul. We all know the world could use more of those!

Note: indicates my family's absolute top favorites on the list. These are the books my kids can't get enough of!

Books to Inspire Your Kid to Be an Includer And Upstander

When you're looking for books about kindness for preschoolers and early grade schoolers, it's important to tackle the subject of including and standing up for others. The preschool or grade school environment may be their first experience dealing with exclusion and relational aggression.

1. Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon - The bully in this story shows how kindness is a choice. And you can't help but smile at Molly Lou Melon's quiet confidence through it all.

2. One - At first glance, you might see this as a counting book and colors book rolled into one. But it also opens the door to countless valuable conversations, like the importance of embracing each other's differences, the diversity of human moods, and what to do when someone is unkind. If you like this book, be sure to check out Zero and Two as well.

3. Strictly No Elephants - This cute book helps kids think about the ramifications of excluding others and how that makes others feel. The perfect way to teach your child to be an includer! My whole family adores this book.

1. I Walk With Vanessa: A Story About a Simple Act of Kindness - For a child who witnesses someone bullying another person, it's hard to know what to do. You know you should choose kindness, but how? This book shows kids exactly what it looks like to choose kindness.

2. Nerdy Birdy - This book shows that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness, even if they're different from you. Kids who feel like they don't quite fit in tend to especially love this story.

3. The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade - Even if you're small or young (or both), you can always speak up for what's right. Kids often feel powerless in this big world, so they love cheering on little Sally in this story.

4. The Big Umbrella - This is a beautifully simple book to show that there's always room for including everyone and taking care of each other, no matter who they are.

Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Children's Books About Friendship
Books About Being There for Others

No list of books that teach kindness would be complete without showing how to be there for others.

1. A Chair for My Mother - This is a classic children's book about kindness, but it's a little wordy for younger kids. With that said, my preschooler can't get enough of it. She loves the display of kindness from the community in this story, and the book has been a jumping off point for great conversations about how to show kindness to others in need.

2. The Rabbit Listened - I never get tired of reading this story to my kids. It's so simple and such a beautiful example of how to be there for someone who's struggling, without trying to jump right into fixing it. My kids ask for this one at least once a day. A must have!

3. Grumpy Goat - How do you help a friend who's feeling grumpy? This book shows the power of simply sitting with a friend who's upset - something even many adults struggle to do.

Books About Seeing the Good in Others

When you're looking for children's books about being kind, make sure to include stories that inspire kids to see the good in others.

1. Good People Everywhere - Such a sweet book! With all the bad news in the world dragging us down, this beautiful little book shows kids examples of the good that people are doing right at this moment.

2. Ribbit! - This is a great story to teach the power of assigning positive intent when someone else's behavior doesn't immediately make sense to you.

3. Dragon Was Terrible - This is one of the best stories I've seen that helps kids assign positive intent to someone they're not getting along with. Plus, it's hilarious.

1. The Story Book Knight - The main character Leo doesn't want to solve problems by fighting, even though he's a knight, so he gets creative. Such a heartwarming little story.

2. Most People - This book kicked off some great conversations with my kids about what it means to be "good" or "bad." My favorite line explains how "there is a seed of goodness inside" each of us that's "waiting to sprout."

3. We're All Wonders - This is a picture book by the author of Wonder, and the message here is the same but for the younger crowd: Everyone deserves kindness, no matter what.

4. Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth - This book is all about the Earth and our place in the world, but it comes with a message about kindness too: With lots of people on the Earth, we're all different but we're all still people, so be kind to others...and there's no reason not to be nice to animals, too.

Books About Being Kind, Even When It's Hard

Sometimes making the choice to be kind isn't easy, and children's books about kindness should acknowledge that.

1. Should I Share My Ice Cream? - You can't go wrong with the Elephant and Piggie series. For a kid, the decision to be kind doesn't get more difficult than deciding whether to share your ice cream with a friend. My favorite line is when Gerald rationalizes his decision: "Sharing a flavor Piggie does not like would be wrong."

2. Knuffle Bunny Free - This is the third and final book in the Knuffle Bunny series. Trixie is growing up and has a golden opportunity to be kind to a younger child...and I dare you not to get choked up at the end.

3. Little Fox in the Forest - Full disclosure: This is a wordless picture book, and I haven't always seen the beauty in that style of book. But my preschooler fell in love with this one, and that made me give it a second chance. In this beautiful story, the child makes the difficult decision to give her lovey to a young fox cub, and the cub returns her kindness.

1. A Hat for Mrs. Goldman - So sweet! My kids love this story of doing something kind for someone even when it's hard. Bonus: This story also shows kids the power of perseverance and a growth mindset.

2. Enemy Pie - This story sends the message that it's important to choose kindness, even when you're dealing with an "enemy." So clever!

3. The Fox Wish - This one sparked a great discussion about why you might decide to give away something you love, simply to make someone else happy.

4. Leonardo, the Terrible Monster - Another awesome creation from Mo Willems. This picture book shows kids the power of choosing empathy and kindness even when you're "supposed to" exclude someone.

Books About the Karma of Being Kind

These picture books about kindness show kids that what goes around, comes around.

1. Plant a Kiss - My whole family has this book memorized (even the toddler's got most of it down). This is a powerful message of putting out kindness into the world and expecting nothing in return. The world lost an amazing gift when author Amy Krouse Rosenthal left us.

2. We Don't Eat Our Classmates - In this story, a dinosaur starts kindergarten, and she has trouble making friends with her human classmates. Kids just eat this book up. It's hilarious, plus it delivers a powerful message about treating others how we'd like to be treated in return.

3. The Lion & The Mouse - This wordless interpretation of one of Aesop's fables introduces the idea of karma and shows why you should treat others how you would expect to be treated.

1. Sidewalk Flowers - Another wordless picture book, this one shows how even the smallest of kindnesses can brighten people's days.

2. Ivy Loves to Give - Toddlers love this story because sometimes when they try to do what's "right," it still ends up being "wrong." But kindness prevails.

3. If You Plant a Seed - When you share and work together, good things happen. This is an adorable story about the power of an abundance mindset.

Books That Show Real-Life Examples of How to Be Kind

When teaching kids about the concept of kindness, they'll learn it much better if you give them real-life, tangible examples of what it means to be kind - which is where these children's books about kindness shine.

1. Baby Be Kind - This board book is the perfect introduction to kindness for infants and young toddlers because it steps through simple ways to be kind.

2. Peace Is an Offering - This is a lovely collection of ideas for being kind to others and how being kind can bring you peace.

3. Be Kind - My kids loved the pictures of different ways to show kindness. This book gives you a great way to put "kindness" in tangible terms kids can wrap their heads around by showing real-life examples.

4. Come With Me - This simple, sweet text gives lots of kid-friendly examples of how to be kind.

Your Turn

What are your favorite books about kindness? Share in a comment below!

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The best children's books that will encourage your child to be kind to others

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Inside: Reading these children's books about kindness will teach your child to be a kind and compassionate person. Add these titles to your collection of the best picture books. As parents, we want to raise kids who grow up to be kind and compassionate and maybe even thoughtful enough to return their grocery store cart to the parking lot corral.

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Author of Hey Kiddo....another perspective

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There are books for young people that hold difficult truths, and we gatekeepers - writers, parents, teachers, librarians - often find ourselves trying to sort out just what is appropriate for our kids to read about. When I was writing and illustrating "Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction," a graphic memoir aimed at readers 12 and up, I didn't pull any punches because of one simple realization: There are difficult truths in our books because there are difficult truths in children's lives.

For me to write this harrowing tale of my upbringing, I needed to write openly and authentically so young people dealing with similar situations would feel less alone. This included some tough scenes about my mother's opioid addiction and some less tough scenes involving my grandmother's salty language. To offer up a watered-down account of how addiction affected me as a young person would have been disingenuous. There are, according to the two recent National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 8.7 million children ages 17 or younger in the United States who live in a household where at least one parent has a substance-use disorder - involving drugs, alcohol or both. Those young people deserve to be seen.
[The tough-love message in Sonia Sotomayor's new books]
I told my story from the perspective of my 17-year-old self because that is an incredibly interesting time for a person - that moment you're about to be launched into the world on your own, just as you're trying to sort out who you are. There are some facts that I learned about my mother in my adult life that I didn't give to my teenage narrator - not because it would have upset the reader but because it would have dramatically altered the narrator's relationship with his mother, thereby steering the memoir away from actual events.

One story I share is a scene in which my mother aided in covering up a murder her then-boyfriend committed. I was just a toddler at the time. For the book, I needed to explain to the reader why the mother was going away even if I didn't give that knowledge to the narrator. My grandparents never gave me that information when I was a youth, but it slipped out from a family friend when I was an adult.

As the publication of "Hey, Kiddo" approached, I needed to face a conundrum similar to one my grandparents had faced as they raised me - when (and if) to tell my children the truth behind their familial lineage. Before I let my nine-year-old daughter read "Hey, Kiddo," I sat her down to tell her about some of the details I reveal in the book. She'd known about my mother's incarceration and drug use, but she'd never known the woman herself or any of the details. (My mother started getting arrested again when my eldest was in preschool and died of an overdose a few years after that.) I built up the courage to have this conversation and learned something very important: that I hadn't been giving my kid enough credit.
[Experts recommend picture books to help kids with all the tough topics]

After I told the tale of my mother's abusive boyfriend and how my mother had helped dispose of the bloodied murder weapon, my daughter was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Maybe she was afraid that she'd get murdered if she didn't help. Or what if she was afraid that man would hurt you when you were little?" Her empathy in the face of such a disturbing revelation blew me away - and reinforced my belief that kids can process difficult truths if they're given the right context and room to think about them.

My mother was just 13 when she started experimenting with drugs - only one year older than the earliest suggested age for readers of "Hey, Kiddo." While my book may help the children of addicts feel less alone, I hope, too, that my mother's story will help young people steer away from the devastating effect of opioids.

It certainly isn't up to me to tell parents what their child should and shouldn't read, but I do know this: There are some very difficult and inconvenient topics our children are going to face in real life. I so hope that our young people can experience and learn about these difficult truths for the first time on the page and not in real life. The windows that books provide may give them warning and steer them in a positive direction.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is the author and illustrator of numerous children's books, including the Lunch Lady and the Platypus Police Squad series. His most recent book is "Hey, Kiddo."

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Perspective | What's appropriate for kids to read? There's value in exposing them to the tough stuff.

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There are books for young people that hold difficult truths, and we gatekeepers - writers, parents, teachers, librarians - often find ourselves trying to sort out just what is appropriate for our kids to read about.

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https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. As such, early experiences are an important public health issue. Much of the foundational research in this area has been referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

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Dr. Nadine Burke Harris- this is the talk that led to her book, The Deepest Well.

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How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

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Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

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Overview for Visual Learners

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Childhood experiences-good and bad-shape our health, well-being, and livelihoods over a lifetime. This infographic uses data from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study and recent findings to show how ACEs and prevention can affect people's lives and society.

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Interesting Article, powerful map
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/upshot/maps-neighborhoods-shape-child-poverty.html

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Excellent website, and article called the "CYW White Paper."

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CYW White Paper_An Unhealthy Dose of Stress_NATIONAL FINAL (1).pdf

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Site has tools for dealing with toxic stress, and info. about ACEs.

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If left unaddressed, toxic stress can affect growth, learning, behavior, immunity, and even genes. Kids who are exposed to very high doses of adversity without the support of a loving and caring adults can have more than double the lifetime risk of heart disease and cancer and a nearly 20-year difference in life expectancy.

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Wonderful article about the power of the parent/teacher team.

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Character Strengths site
https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/login?trk_msg=285NCM6T33LKNBKCGIJLINR5IS&trk_contact=0DM8INU103UNCIL944PPCAOV7K&trk_sid=QVP444HREJLS5TVM70QHQE5CNS&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=sign+in&utm_campaign=It%27s+Time+To+Focus+On+The+Good+In+You

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Site with many links, this page is a link to more information about Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, author of The Deepest Well.

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Listen to the interview "What Do Asthma, Heart Disease and Cancer have in Common? Maybe Childhood Trama".
https://www.npr.org/sections/e...ybe-childhood-trauma

Burke Harris is the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco. She's spent much of her career trying to spread awareness about the dangers of childhood toxic stress. Burke Harris just released a new book, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.

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Interview with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris on Weekend Edition

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Listen to the interview "What Do Asthma, Heart Disease and Cancer have in Common? Maybe Childhood Trama". https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/23/578280721/what-do-asthma-heart-disease-and-cancer-have-in-common-maybe-childhood-trauma Burke Harris is the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco. She's spent much of her career trying to spread awareness about the dangers of childhood toxic stress.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/books/review/why-am-i-me-paige-britt-empathy-children.html

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IRCJ Fall 2018

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Julie Johnson's books on Goodreads (31 books)

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Julie Johnson has 31 books on their all shelf: I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, Dizzy by Jonah Winter, I Am Peace: A B...

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/86169686?shelf=professional-titles

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Additional Read-Aloud Titles with SEL themes

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Additional Read-Aloud Titles with SEL themes

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/86169686?shelf=new-titles