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This book is a wonderful book to address a major issue in growing up, self-esteem. Curtis shows kids that feeling good means liking yourself the way you are. I'm Gonna Like Me celebrates kids differences such as, body type, missing teeth and personal style choices. This book teaches children to love themselves even if they make a mistake, don't know the right answer or get picked last in gym class. It encourages a healthy view of ones self, establishes a sense self worth and a positive outlook on life.  This book is an all around perfect book to teach self esteem, and the pictures make it even better.

Dear Jamie Lee Curtis,      Congratulations! My name is Brittney Ward, and I am pleased to inform you that your book, I'm Gonna Like Me, has been chosen as the recipient of the Kira Elizabeth Award for excellence in children's literature about growing up.      This award was created as part of an assignment in the Elementary Education block courses at Penn State University - Altoona Campus. Each student's task was to create an award for some unique aspect of children's literature and then create the criteria for the award. Our fellow students then nominated books for our award following the specific criteria. After looking closely at several nominations, we were to pick a winner and notify the author of our winning book.      The Kira Elizabeth Award was to be presented to a book that provided guidance to a child going through the trials and tribulations of growing up. In today's society, children are "growing up" much faster than in the past. Because growing up is a part of life, I wanted the book to be one a child could turn to when they wanted to learn about or take shelter in knowing the social and emotional obstacles that come along with growing up. Nominations had to include appropriate facts, reassurances, or guidance on how to deal with the social, emotional, and/or personal changes children age's 5-9 experience growing up, such as how to make friends, getting along with classmates, understanding their feelings, etc.      This award is in honor of a little girl named Kira Elizabeth Angello. She is three years old and, in my opinion, is growing up entirely too fast. I watch her from time to time and she loves books. Her mother always wants to make sure that she has high self-esteem and that she loves who she is. Therefore, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to 'shop around' for books that deal with that issue. In the wo

A great portrayal of a mouse child learning to grow up and leave his childhood friend, his blankey. His mother helps him grow up and make his blankey into a big boy hankey! This book portrays a great picture of how and what it takes for children to grown up. This is one of the books strengths. From a teachers viewpoint I think this would be great to read with little children because they can relate to having to deal with something like growing apart from your childhood friend such as a blankey. I do have this book, it is my own, so if you would like to check it out, you can get it from me, Enjoy (;

"Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" is a novel about a preteen girl who grows up struggling with religion, menstruation and peer pressure. Judy Blume tells it like it is. This would a good book for girls to read as they are growing up to relate to Margaret and her young life.

This book is a picture book for children about dealing with the absence of a father whether it's due to a death, not knowing, or absent fathers. The story is about a boy who gets picked on about not having a father and the mother explains the many reasons why a dad might not be present. The book also includes a section for teenage parents that consists of quotes, ideas, and how other single-parents dealt with this situation. This book would be a good book to send home to a single-parent family to help the child understand their family situation.

Dear Ms. Lindsay,             My name is Tania Lewis, and I am an Elementary Education major at Penn State- Altoona in Pennsylvania, and I am writing to you today to inform you that you have won the Aiden Jacob Lewis Award for excellence in Children's Literature about children who grow up in a single parent home for your story, "Do I Have a Daddy?" The criteria for this award is that the book should display excellence in the fact that it helps children understand that growing up in a single parent home isn't always as been as it may sometimes seem, and that they are not alone and are not the only child who lives in homes just like they do.This award was created in my LLED 402 class. This class is solely based on analyzing, reading, and working with all types of children's literature. Every student in the class was asked to create an award about something that means a lot to them and also name it after someone special. This award that I created is named after my three month old son, Aiden, and the reason for the category is because I am a single mother and I worry sometimes about questions my son will ask me when he gets older, so I thought if I had books to help him understand, that it wouldn't be as hard. Each student, after creating an award, had to nominate books for their classmate's awards. Once done, we got to pick the winning book, and had an award ceremony for the nominators of the books. I chose your book for many different reasons. I chose it because when Erik's mother is faced with the question, "Do I have a Daddy?" she is very positive and honest with him, thinking about his feelings and saying that not all children liv

This book is about a girl named Maria Isabel, a Hispanic child growing up in the United States. When she starts school, her teacher changes her name to Mary because there are already two other girls with the name Maria in her classroom. Maria Isabel has trouble answering to Mary because it is not her name. Maria Isabel is proud of her name because of the fact that she is named after relatives whom she loves. Because Maria Isabel finds it impossible to answer to Mary, she is excluded from the school's Winter Pageant. This book shows a Hispanic child's pride in her heritage and how difficult it is to fit into a new environment that doesn't understand your culture. With a growing multi-cultural population, this book is great to recommend to older students of all ethnicities to help them understand and accept different cultures.

Papa's Latkes is a fantastic story about a family growing up without a mother. This is a heartwarming book about a family of two girls, Selma and Dora, and their dad who are celebrating Chanukah without their mother for the very first time. Obviously, the girls have a hard time dealing with the situation. As they are making latkes for Chanukah, they realize how much they miss their mother. Papa reassures the girls that everything will be okay, even without Mama. Papa's Latkes is a really important book because a lot of children have to deal with a parent dying and living life with only one parent. The illustrations in this book are beautiful. Also, Papa's Latkes would be a great book to have in a classroom because it is diverse.

Another website for the book is: http://michelledwards.com/books/picture_books/papas_latkes

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson is an excellent book. This book is about a families struggle through a workers strike. Rosa, one of the main characters, lives at home with her mother, sister, baby brother and another immigrant family.  Bread and Roses,Too portrays her emotions about the strike and her families involvement.  It also tells the story of a homeless boy who works in the mill where the workers are striking.  Both these children leave to go to Vermont until the strike is over. There they learn alot about life and family.  This book well suites the award becase both of the main characters are from single-parent homes and this issue is addressed many times.  A weakness of the book is that children may not relate to that specific issue becasue there iare so many other issues being addressed. Overall, this is a great book for the Aiden Jacob Lewis award because it portrays many single-parent families and all the families are not the sterotypical perfect family.

This book is about a little boy who is relaxing by the lake and a fly goes by. The little boy grows curious as to why the fly flew past so fast. He catches up to the fly and finds out he is running from a frog. This begins a story where various animals and a man are running from the thing that comes after them. The little boy finally figures out that the animals aren't chasing after each other and that one noise started it all. The repetitive rhyming nature of this book will hook children instantly. The book does an amazing job in combining the elements of a story and poetry. This would be a great book to use in a poetry unit to show that poems aren't always just a few lines long.

The narrator, a boy, lies awake listening for the sound of the bells on Santa's sleigh, a sound a friend who doesn't believe in Santa Claus says that he won't hear. Indeed, he does not, but what he does hear is even more wonderful and remarkable. He hears the hiss of steam and the squeak of metal, and when he looks out the window, he sees a train outside his house. It is the Polar Express, destination: North Pole. Once aboard, he finds that it is full of children, all in their nightclothes. They sing Christmas carols, drink rich cocoa and eat candies as the train races northward. Finally, they arrive at the North Pole, and the narrator is selected to receive the first gift of Christmas. He asks for, and receives from Santa Claus himself, a silver bell from the sleigh. Although the boy loses the bell on the way home, kindly Mr. C. returns it to him, and the boy discovers that the bell has a remarkable quality -- only those who still believe in the wonder that is Santa and the spirit of Christmas can hear the bell. His friends and his sister eventually cannot hear the bell, but even when he grows up "the bell still rings for [him] as it does for all who truly believe." This books illustrations grab you from the get go. They are so detailed and perfectly illustrated that you feel like you are right in the story yourself. From a teacher's perspective, this would be an great choice to read around the holidays and do a little Christmas lesson with it. I own this book, too. So if you want to take a look at it, let me know. Enjoy (;

This book is about a really scary fish named Al who couldn't make any friends because of how he looked. All the other fish were scared of him. He tried everything to get them to be his friend. One day, the other fish got caught in a net and Al got to be the hero and save them. This book highlights the topics of  making friends, getting along with classmates, and understanding one's feelings. This book would be beneficial to read if there is a conflict in your class between students because of differences.