It is important for young girls to see themselves represented in book characters. When young girls can relate to strong female character in a story it helps them build strength, know it is acceptable to be vulnerable, and provides examples of creative solutions in relatable life situations. 

On the flip side, it is also important for readers to see young girls from different backgrounds in a story because it brings visibility to cultural differences, builds empathy, and creates unity.

We picked six girl-power novels for your middle grade reader to find relatable characters and learn from others in a different life situations. 

In a Flash by Donna Jo Napoli

Simona and Carolina's father is a beloved cook in Italy but when the Italian ambassador request his cooking skills in Japan, the girls travel thousand of miles to have an adventure with their Papa. At first, living in Japan is exciting and each sister works to learn the language and customs.

But...

Graphic novels are one of my favorite type of books because it combines art and text to bring the story alive. Here are my favorite graphic novels for your middle grade reader. 

All's Faire in Middle School 

By Victoria Jamieson

Imogene (Impy) is raised by parents working the Renaissance Faire. She loves all that goes into a fair and can't wait to begin her own training. Impy's quest is to attend public school after being homeschooled her whole life. But public school is not as adventurous as she hoped and there are a ton of rules to follow. Will Impy complete her quest and become a brave knight? Watch the book trailer here. 

Guts

By Raina Telgemeier

It all starts with a stomach ache. Once her family gets over a bug, Raina realizes her stomach pain is not going away. Raina worries about a lot of things - school, friends, siblings, food and most importantly, if someone is going to puke around her. This is the author's true story about dealing with her food and...

What an interesting time to be alive! While the adults of the world deal with working from home, unemployment, being an essential worker, home schooling their kids, day-to-day changes from the local and federal government and a thousand more things, our tweens are also trying to figure out who they are as a person and how they fit in during this isolation.

Difficult to say the least. We have a few ideas on how you can help your child manage this strange, new world. 

1. Provide a routine but allow your child to participate in the creation of what that looks like. This gives them a sense of independence and improves their decision-making skills.
2. Set realistic goals for each school day. Online schooling is HARD! Pick 1-3 goals for each day or even 3-5 goals for the week, either way setting expectations is key.
3. Create a checklist for what to complete each day- use stickers or other rewards for completion.
4. Reach out to teachers for support, they want to help our kids succeed.
5. Talk to...

Welcome to March! This month is always bittersweet. We get to spring the clock ahead again for daylight saving time, giving us a feeling of summer. However, here in Ohio, mother nature always brings another snowstorm or two before the month is through. During this time of year, many of us are looking ahead at spring break that may fall into this month (ours does) and looking for something to fill the time with the kids. One great way to spend non-school days together is volunteering.

It is important to instill the value of giving in our children early in life. By learning the value of giving and helping others it gives children a feeling of pride. Using time and talent to help others, rather than just providing money, allows kids to see an immediate positive impact on someone's life. When volunteering, kids will experience first-hand how other’s live and this gives them a sense of gratitude for what they have. It can be difficult to find volunteer opportunities that allow...

As humans we are wired to be guided by emotions.  Generations ago, our ancestors used their “fight or flight” instinct to survive. A saber tooth tiger may not be chasing your family today but, helping your tween learn what their emotions and internal intuitions are communicating can feel just as daunting. Many of us deal with negative emotions by trying to ignore them or living in a negative state without a plan to move forward or channeling it into competition and anger with others. A more empowering option is to learn from our emotions.

In order to learn from our emotions, we need to evaluate them. The following steps will help you have an open and honest conversation with your tween (or yourself).

First, have your child describe the feeling or feelings they are going through so you both can identify the emotion.  Next is to clarify the message of the emotion. What is this specific emotion trying to convey? What is the purpose of that emotion?  Evaluate...

Welcome to 2020! Some of you are (or already have) created resolutions and goals for the upcoming year. On the other hand, some of you may not be the New Year resolution type but believe progress and self-growth happen no matter the time of year.

In either case, are you including your kids in creating and setting goals for themselves? If you are, I applaud you, as goal setting is a powerful thing. It can literally alter our brains. This article from INC Magazine by Geoffrey James, explains beautifully the benefits of goal setting, with the scientific research to back up this amazing phenomenon. James says, “if you strongly desire a goal, your brain will perceive obstacles as less significant than they might otherwise appear”.  Our brains are chemically changing based on what we focus on. This is a huge benefit to teaching your child to goal set.  You child is growing, learning, and reprogramming new thoughts and belief systems every day. By goal...

As Thanksgiving approaches many of us feel pressured to constantly be thankful or obligated to publicly count our blessings via social media gratitude challenges. But life happens, things don’t turn out as we expected, and we bite back the urge to whack the next person who ask us what we are grateful for. The example might be a bit extreme but some of us are not great at being grateful. And that’s OKAY.

With all the excitement around the holiday season and end of the year, many of us get caught up in the stress the season can bring. If you are not feeling particularly grateful, then instead take a moment to really feel the feeling you are experiencing. If you are sad, angry, overwhelmed, or whatever feeling is surfacing, allow yourself to really get the message of that feeling. Bring it out. Ask yourself, why this specific emotion?  Listen to the answer. Every emotion has some purpose. Finding the purpose can open the door to new insights. So, experience that...

October is a time to celebrate and explore spooky side of life. As a parent, one thing that might be a bit horrifying to think about is your elementary or middle school child having their very own cell phone and access to the world at their fingertips. A new cell phone for your tween means new areas your child is exploring without your knowledge. Many kids use various social media applications to communicate with friends using their cell phone.  Providing kids with their own cell phone, means more responsibility and an opportunity to build trust between you and your child. We have put together a few tips, suggestions, and conversation starters to use when discussing social media and phone use.

Tips and Suggestions:

• Remind your child that what they see on other’s profiles is their highlight reel, not necessarily their day-to-day life. Remember that they do not have insight into what is behind the photo. Everyone’s journey is different.
• Remind your child to be...

If your home is like ours then homework (or really any activity deemed educational) is either a battle to get completed, placed on the back burner or ignored. When we created J.O.Y. Journal we wanted to help kids explore and build upon important values such as self-love, resilience, confidence in owning who they are.  These are some tough values to teach but, like anything else in life, we wanted the child to learn through experience and thoughtful reflection.   Our main goal was to allow the child to discover who they are and what is great about them by interacting with guided questions while enjoying the fun and creative aspect of a journal. We didn’t want the journal to feel like homework.

The great news for you as a parent is that J.O.Y. Journal aligns with national educational standards so using the journal means your child is learning necessary skills while having fun. The chart below outlines how the J.O.Y. Journal aligns with Common Core and State...

Through the eyes of a child, the world is full of possibilities. You can be a pirate, sailing to undiscovered worlds. You can be a doctor, caring for your stuffed bunny with only one good eye. You can be a master builder creating spaceships, forts, and whole cities all with the click of a block.

We need creativity and imaginative thinking present in our children’s lives because it builds creative and divergent thinking skills, develops physical dexterity, and teaches comprise and negotiation tactics.  CNN.com published an article discussing with educational psychologist Kyung Hee Kim creativity scores in 300,000 American K-12 students saying, “Creativity scores have significantly decreased since 1990. […] Creativity scores for kindergarten through third-graders decreased the most and those from the fourth through sixth grade decreased by the next largest amount”.

In addition to free-play and exploring the outdoors, you and your child can expand your...