Teaching students how to persevere through challenging times and circumstances, develop the ability to find motivation from within, and recognize the importance of setting goals and working towards accomplishing them can help students become more successful in our classrooms and in their every day lives. Earlier this year I told you that over the summer, I felt compelled to re-evaluate my go-to picture books to ensure that the books I use to teach different topics represents a diverse group of characters and authors. I shared some wonderful additions I made to my collection for teaching about building community and empathy and some great finds that I now plan to incorporate into my units that deal with relationship skills. This post is the third installment of four posts where I’ll share old favorites and new picture book titles that will help make your read aloud selections more diverse and inclusive. In this post, I focus on books that touch on the themes of Perseverance, Intrinsic Motivation, and Goal-Setting. However, our mindset is also a part of our ability to achieve our goals, dream big, and persevere. If you need read aloud recommendations specifically for developing students’ growth mindset, I’ve got an extensive list of recommendations here.

A NOTE ABOUT DIVERSITY IN BOOK COLLECTIONS

In my quest to maintain an inclusive collection of picture books, I relied heavily on research from The Conscious Kid, “an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth.”  The Conscious Kid has created “a curated list of teacher-facing materials and evaluation criteria to affirm and reflect students’ identities and to help facilitate important conversations about equity, racism, and belonging.” 

The Conscious Kid has 14 helpful guidelines and questions to consider when selecting inclusive books. I found the guidelines to be extremely helpful and enlightening. I recommend checking out the entire 9 page document, but I thought I’d highlight some of the guidelines to note in reference to themes like growth mindset, perseverance, intrinsic motivation, goal setting, and courage:

• Watch for Invisibility: Having an absence or minimal portrayal of different groups teaches young people about their perceived worth by showing whose stories and lives are worthy of being celebrated

• Support Counter Stories: Include texts that oppose deficit narratives of people of color and that instead center the knowledge and experiences of marginalized groups

• Beware of tokenism in books: Avoid books that only show “one” person of a given group

• Foster healthy racial identity: Counter whiteness as the norm or definition of success; avoid books where characters only succeed when conforming to white values or norms

• Choose social justice books: Push back against embedded biases and reinforced values of sexism, racism, or ableism

• Consider the author’s background: Choose books written by authors who are members of the community they write about (These have been noted in the list)

• Seek out specificity: Avoid books that generalize experiences of race, culture, or ethnicity and instead select books that provide specific and nuanced experiences (Many of the books in this recommended list CENTER a person of a marginalized race, culture, or ethnicity and give us SPECIFIC insight into their experiences).

Note: Links to the suggested read alouds in this post are affiliate links. This means that I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to  amazon.com. Read my full disclosure here.

PERSEVERANCE-THEMED PICTURE BOOKS

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo* (Asian-American)

This book tells the story of how Sammy Lee, the first Asian-American to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948, struggled and persevered to reach his goal growing up. From the fact that people of color were rarely allowed to swim at the public pool to his family trying to steer him away from his dream, this read aloud is chock full of examples of how Sammy Lee had to persevere despite all the obstacles put in his way.

Ruby’s Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges* (Asian-American)

Ruby is a confident young girl growing up in old China. Most young girls have their sights set on learning how to cook, clean, and keep house so that they may one day marry. Ruby, however, is determined to attend university when she grows up like all the boys in her family. This story is an excellent example of the importance and rewards that come with persevering, regardless of how hard is it to go against the grain.

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams (Person of Color)

Rosa is a young Hispanic girl living in the U.S. with her mother, a waitress, and her grandmother. One day her family sadly loses everything in a house fire. Having to start over, they begin adding all their tips and savings into a jar to save up for a chair. With a lot of time, patience, and determination they finally have enough for a chair and find the perfect one. This read aloud provides an authentic portrayal of a working-class family that must rely on hard work and determination, despite setbacks, to meet their goals.

Salt In His Shoes by Deloris Jordan* and Roslyn M. Jordan* (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

This book is about a young Michael Jordan’s struggle with wanting to be taller so that he will be a better basketball player. When he gets discouraged, his mother tells him that if he puts salt in his shoes every night and continues to practice it will help him to achieve his goal. Michael grasps onto this proclamation, sprinkles salt in his shoes every night, and devotes all of his time to practicing. One day during a game, Michael discovers he has gotten a lot better and the reader sees it was his hard work and perseverance, not the salt, that made the difference in him eventually becoming one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay by Cari Best (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

Zulay is a typical first grader who describes a typical day in her classroom. Small details are given as the story progresses until the reader realizes that Zulay is blind and doesn’t want to be treated differently from her classmates. When Zulay’s teacher starts talking about the upcoming field day, Zulay decides that she wants to run a race. With her hard work, determination, and encouragement from her friends, she achieves her goal.

She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World by Chelsea Clinton (Black, Indigenous People of Color, People of Color)

This book highlights thirteen American women who have helped shape our country by taking a stance on issues they felt were important through either speaking out, staying seated or captivating an audience. She Persisted shows readers on multiple levels that perseverance makes a difference and encourages looking past obstacles and never giving up.

All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel

This book is based on the true story of Jennifer Keelan, a little girl who truly embodied perseverance. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at two years old, Jennifer was confined to a wheelchair. From an early age, she recognized the inequities that existed for her compared to her able-bodied peers. Wanting change, Jennifer joined the disability rights movement and became an activist for disabled people. This picture book helps bring light to a group that is rarely represented in children’s books, as well as models the theme of perseverance in the face of obstacles.

MOTIVATION-THEMED PICTURE BOOKS

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman* (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

Grace is a strong-willed, confident, black young girl who has a love for stories. When her school decides to perform Peter Pan, Grace desperately wants to play the role of Peter. However, her classmates point out that Peter was a boy and he wasn’t black. When Grace seeks comfort from her Nana, she tells Grace that she can do anything she imagines. Nana takes Grace to the ballet where a famous black ballerina is staring and Grace gets the dose of inspiration she needs to work hard and stay focused on her goal.

I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t! by Diane Dillon (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

Zoe is a confident girl who claims that she “can be anything I want to be”. Her ambitious, free attitude however is coupled with feelings of self-doubt when a little voice inside her head continuously questions many of her grand ideas and goals. Though always there, Zoe never gives in to the voice and even grows strong enough to challenge it, thus taking away its hold on her. This book is an excellent discussion starter about the self-doubt that exists in us all and how we can deal with it so it doesn’t keep us from accomplishing our dreams.

GOAL SETTING-THEMED PICTURE BOOKS

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

From the moment she was born, Wilma Rudolph dealt with and overcame numerous challenges including the historical challenges of being African American, scarlet fever, polio, being told she would never walk again, and having to wear braces on her legs. Despite these obstacles, Wilma grew up to compete as a runner in the Olympics and became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in one year. Wilma Unlimited is a beautiful and inspiring story portraying that even things that seem impossible are indeed possible with the right mindset. I also love to use this story during my unit on Perseverance.

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford* (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

Arturo Schomburg began to observe early on in his life that the textbooks his teachers gave him to study largely omitted black people and their contributions to history. This inspired Arturo to begin collecting books, letters, music, and art from Africa that represented the achievements of people of African descent. Collecting these works became his life’s passion. Eventually, his collection and efforts to share what had been left of out the history books became the foundation for Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Phillip Freelon by Kelly Starling Lyons* (Black, Indigenous Person of Color)

This book portrays the story of Philip Freelon, a celebrated architect who designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The reader is shown how Philip’s life, beginning with his childhood struggles with reading and writing in Philadelphia, made him who he is and led him to his successes and accomplishments. Dream Builder is a fantastic discussion catalyst for upper elementary students about setting goals, overcoming challenges, and the role that racial discrimination plays in the lives of black people.

WHERE TO FIND MORE SUGGESTIONS TO ADD DIVERSITY TO YOUR BOOK COLLECTIONS

I am very appreciative of the following teachers and websites who do the hard work of sharing represent diversity and inclusivity in their picture book recommendations.

The Tutu Teacher on Instagram

Jillian Fine-Heiss’s #classroombookaday Facebook Group

We Need Diverse Books on Instagram

The Conscious Kid on Instagram and Facebook

Click here for all of my blog posts for recommended read alouds

Regardless of whether you find yourself teaching in-person or virtually, this year has looked and felt very different from all others.  I hope these suggested read alouds give you some new ideas and new energy that will help you to continue to build and grow your classroom community.

This free theme unit is packed with lesson ideas, student journal pages, discussion prompts, self-reflections, bulletin board materials, and more! YES! Everything you see below for the belonging theme is FREE!

If you need resources for virtual morning meetings or remote learning, I’ve got you covered with Google Slides versions of each theme set. Grab your FREE slides for belonging here.

Reading aloud picture books is one of the key strategies I use to engage students in discussions during morning meetings. I connect my morning meetings through theme-based units where I’m able to teach social-emotional skills, character education, and strengthen the classroom community.

THEMES TO GUIDE YOUR MORNING MEETINGS ALL YEAR LONG

If you’d like more social emotional theme units with a focus on encouraging students’ social, emotional, and academic success, you may be interested in the Morning Meeting Mega Bundle of 17 theme units. With units focused on kindness, compassion, growth mindset, gratitude, perseverance, responsibility, managing emotions, and so much more, your engaging morning meeting plans are done for you and your students will love them! You can save 10% on the Mega Bundle of all 17 themes with the code MM10.

Any other read alouds you’d add to this list for perseverance, intrinsic motivation, and goal-setting? If so, let me know!