Learning to see the glass as half full — or even just appreciating the potential of a cup to be filled! — is a lifelong journey. Inspiring books can help young kids learn the habit of seeing the brighter side of life. That’s the power of a simple story, well told: it shows readers of all ages that small acts can have a big impact.
Choosing the best inspirational books for your young readers can be an illuminating process. You might land on a whimsical story of a little butterfly who doubts their own ability to fly (The Little Butterfly That Could), a profound tale of compassion inspired by Tolstoy (The Three Questions), or a collection of Zen wisdom (Zen Happiness). Inspirational books for kids come in all shapes and sizes: pictures books and chapter books, folk tales and educational readers.
To help you find the perfect positivity-building book for your little readers, Scholastic spoke with Lily Howard Scott, MS.Ed. An educator and the author of the book, The Words That Shape Us, Scott shared how words can be a magic trick and books the spell that awakens optimism in your child’s heart.
"Optimism means normalizing that struggle is nothing to be ashamed of and won’t last forever." —Lily Howard Scott
Scholastic: What is optimism for kids?
Lily Howard Scott: I would describe optimism to kids as holding onto the belief that good things lie ahead even in the context of current challenges.
Children (and grown-ups, for that matter) can sometimes blanket their current emotional state onto all of eternity: “Reading feels hard now, so it will always be hard.” Or: “I had a terrible day — I’ll never make a friend in this new classroom.”
Optimism means normalizing that struggle is nothing to be ashamed of and won’t last forever; in fact, struggle often paves the way to wonderful things in the distance, to things we can’t yet imagine.
Scholastic: How can parents introduce the concept of optimism?
Lily Howard Scott: Parents might first clearly define optimism for kids and then model using the term themselves in casual think-alouds.
I’m consistently struck by how, when kids don’t have the precise language to describe a mindset or healthy way of thinking, it’s significantly harder for them to engage in that kind of thinking. But once kids have access to self-talk (modeled by parents) such as “This is hard now, but I’m going to stay optimistic — hard things are rarely hard forever!”, they can approach tricky assignments or difficult social situations with a more regulated nervous system and increased resilience.
"Empowering kids with specific phrases that encourage them to lean into optimistic thinking is a gift for now and for later: they may rely on this language for decades to come." —Lily Howard Scott
This seems like a magic trick, but research confirms the power of words to influence our emotional and physiological responses to challenging moments. And empowering kids with specific phrases that encourage them to lean into optimistic thinking is a gift for now and for later: they may rely on this language for decades to come.
Scholastic: What read-alouds really help to bring this concept to light for kids?
Lily Howard Scott: As a teacher and parent, there’s nothing like a read-aloud to jump-start conversations about new ideas or ways of thinking. Read-alouds set the stage for rich discussions and “aha!” moments for several reasons. Both grown-up and children disappear into an imaginary world together, unite on a similar emotional plane, and envision similar “mind movies.” Research even indicates that their heartbeats can synchronize. From this closely connected place, both reader and listener are ready to openheartedly discuss big ideas.
One of my favorite picture books that explicitly explores optimism is The Magical Yet by Angela DiTerlizzi. This book reframes the idea of being unable to do something (tie shoes! ride a bike!) as simply being unable to do it quite yet.
I also love Ish by Peter H. Reynolds. It’s about a little boy who, after initially feeling frustrated that his sketch of a flower doesn’t look exactly like he imagined it would, learns to embrace that his sketch is “flower-ish.” When kids approach challenges “ishfully” and remind one another not to “squish their own ish,” they jump into assignments optimistically and with the hope that what they ultimately create may surprise them in wonderful ways.
Optimism isn’t about expecting that our dreams will come true in precisely in the way we imagine they will — when does that ever happen?! — but more about embracing the reality that beauty and delight lurk in the unexpected, if we know to frame things that way.
Set in the segregated south, The Other Side [written by Jaqueline Woodson] is about how one small, brave choice — two girls of different races sitting on a fence together — helps both children imagine, and inch towards, a fairer world. Woodson’s writing illuminates how, when things are hard or unfair, the steady accumulation of brave choices by ordinary people (yes, even by kids!) really do matter.
Scholastic: What books have characters who either are optimistic or had to learn to be?
Lily Howard Scott: I’d like to share about a familiar character and a less familiar one. I recently read Charlotte’s Web to my five-year-old son, and revisiting E.B. White’s prose was a balm I didn’t know I needed.
White writes with such deep admiration for, and delight in, the natural world. I had also forgotten what an extraordinary role model Charlotte is: she believes in herself and is relentlessly optimistic. When she tells Wilbur that she will save his life, she doesn’t actually have a plan yet, just confidence that somehow she’ll find a way: “‘You shall not die,’ said Charlotte, briskly … ‘How?’ asked Wilbur. ‘That remains to be seen.’”
Charlotte’s steely optimism here reminds children that they don’t need to know exactly how they’ll overcome challenges to forge forward with determination; they simply need to do the next right thing, over and over again, until they get where they’re going.
Another character who embodies optimism to me is Piper Chen in Phillipa Soo’s and Maris Pasquale Doran’s beautiful new picture book, Piper Chen Sings. Piper, anxious about the prospect of singing a solo in chorus, learns to greet the butterflies in her stomach with a calm “Hello, Húdié!” (“Húdié” means “butterfly” in Mandarin). She acknowledges the butterflies as a clue that something exciting, not scary, lies ahead.
Soo and Pasquale normalize that doing hard things can sometimes be accompanied by jitters, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong to keep going, to persevere with hope.
Scholastic: What else can families do to support kids in becoming more optimistic?
Lily Howard Scott: Back to the power of a casual think-aloud: if a parent can’t find their car keys, they might say something like: “Okay, I’m feeling so frustrated that I can’t find those keys, but I’m going to remember to stay optimistic. If I keep retracting my steps, they’re bound to pop up. I’ve got this.”
It’s a pipe dream to think that a child will respond with something like, “Wow, next time something is hard for me, I’m definitely going to remember to think optimistically, too!” In all likelihood, the kid won’t even look up from whatever they’re doing. But that child has nevertheless heard their parent, and in a difficult moment a few weeks later, they may remind themselves to think optimistically, too. The way that we speak to (and around) our children becomes the way that our children speak to themselves.
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About Lily Howard Scott
Lily Howard Scott, MSEd, is a NYC-based educator and author who supports teachers and school leaders around the country. She presents regularly at conferences, and her writing about education has been published in the Washington Post and Edutopia, among other publications. She's also the author of the book The Words That Shape Us: The Science-Based Power of Teacher Language.
