Children’s Book Corner is a column suggesting children’s books from a mother of 11 children, who has also explored writing for children. Today’s column highlights fun children’s book reads for October that will hopefully keep your young reader reading!

By Pamela Tuck

It’s October! With a full month of school under our belts, parents and students should be well on their way to a happy and healthy school year, right? Not necessarily. This is the time of the year, when things are beginning to surface. The newness of starting school has worn off, the excitement is now channeled into How many days before winter break? Although each student and parent may face their own mini dramas with school, the one central theme that October brings schools across the country as the National Bullying Prevention Month is Choosing Kindness.

Every October, schools and organizations across the country join the STOMP Out Bullying™ campaign which encourages communities to work together to stop bullying and cyberbullying, along with ending hatred and racism by increasing awareness of all forms of bullying on all children of all ages. If you’d like to find out more about this campaign, visit www.stompoutbullying.org  

While there are many books for children that focus on anti-bullying and express choosing kindness, I’d like to suggest one book that speaks across several grade levels and is a good book to open discussions about how to handle bullying, as a victim or a bystander. 

Drumroll please . . .

Say Something
Written by Peggy Moss, Illustrated by Lea Lyon

This book is recommended for ages 5 and up.

Say Something is a story about a young girl who witnesses other students in her school being teased and bullied. She soon learns that feeling sorry for them is not enough, when she experiences the role of a victim while others watch silently and feel sorry for her.

My next book recommendation is a book that has been embraced by students, incorporated into curriculum plans and selected for school reads across the country for its central themes of kindness and tolerance that resonates with many people around the world.

Drumroll two please . . .

Wonder
Written by R.J. Palacio

This book is recommended for ages 8 to 12

Auggie Pullman is born with facial differences that prevented him from going to a mainstream school. By fifth grade, his family decides to let him attend public school where he and his classmates and community struggle to discover their compassion and acceptance. Auggie’s extraordinary journey unites them and proves you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

Hopefully these suggestions will help your children choose kindness and help stomp out bullying . . . and as always . . . keep you and your child reading

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