Raising The books the program leans on
The cheapest way to explain an abstract idea to a five-year-old is to tie it to a character they already trust. The program doesn't retell these books: before a lesson you read a couple of spreads and ask one question.
Gary Gadget
George Johansson & Jens Ahlbom
A maker. He finds junk and turns it into a car, a boat, a plane, a house. He never says "it won't work" — he says "let's try it another way."
Lessons: 5
No English edition is in print. The original Swedish books are the "Mulle Meck" series by George Johansson and Jens Ahlbom; libraries and used-book sellers may have translations.
The Most Magnificent Thing
Ashley Spires
A girl sets out to build a magnificent thing. It comes out wrong. She gets angrier and angrier, quits, walks it off — and comes back.
Lessons: 2
ISBN: 9781554537044
The Color Monster
Anna Llenas
A monster wakes up with all his feelings tangled together, and a girl helps him sort them into jars, one color at a time.
Lessons: 1
ISBN: 9780316450010
When Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really Angry
Molly Bang
Sophie explodes, runs out of the house, climbs a tree, watches the water — and comes home when the anger has passed.
Lessons: 2
ISBN: 9780590189798
Jabari Jumps
Gaia Cornwall
Jabari is going to jump off the diving board today. He is definitely not scared. He climbs down twice before he goes.
Lessons: 3
ISBN: 9780763678388
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Virginia Lee Burton
Mike and his old steam shovel dig a cellar in a single day and then realize they forgot to leave a way out. The mistake becomes the ending.
Lessons: 3
ISBN: 9780544279926
Paisley Rabbit and the Treehouse Contest
Steve Richardson
Paisley enters a treehouse-building contest with no experience and nobody to help her. She builds it anyway, by working out her own way to do it.
Lessons: 2
ISBN: 9781736456514
How Does My Fruit Grow?
Gerda Muller
Everything ripens in its own time. You cannot hurry a plum by pulling on it.
Lessons: 1
ISBN: 9781782508045
A Perfect Wonderful Day with Friends
Philip Waechter
A fox, a bear, a crow, a badger and a raccoon spend an ordinary day together. Nothing dramatic happens, and it is lovely.
Lessons: 5
ISBN: 9781776574667
Our lists on Bookshop.org
The program books, plus picture books we suggest in our guides, in four lists:
- The Books Behind Raising Stoics · 8 books
- Books About Big Feelings for Ages 4–8 · 17 books
- Picture Books for Big Firsts and Small Fears · 19 books
- Books About Patience, Trying Again, and “Not Yet” · 15 books
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The full table — which question to ask for each of the 24 lessons — opens after you sign in.