On my shelf this week:
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough
Write. Publish. Repeat. The No-Luck Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success, by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant
The Unmapped Sea (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place), by Maryrose Wood
This week I’m reading a fascinating book on how children succeed, written by a journalist who looks at the characteristics that helps kids succeed in spite of stress in their lives. I’m only early in the book, but already it is filled with research and valuable information for parents and educators. The writing book was written by the hosts for the Self Publishing Podcast, who produce an astronomical amount of literature on a weekly basis. I wanted to know their secrets. And the last is the newest book in one of my favorite children’s book series. We’re reading it aloud as a family. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place are fantastic read-alouds; Maryrose Wood writes with such personality that the narrator gets to have a voice. My boys love these books.
Best quotes so far:
“What matters most in a child’s development, they say, is not how much information we can stuff into her brain in the first few years. What matters, instead, is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence.”
Paul Tough
“Scientists have reached a consensus in the past decade that the key channel through which early adversity causes damage to developing bodies and brains is stress.”
Paul Tough
“It is in early childhood that our brains and bodies are most sensitive to the effects of stress and trauma. But it is in adolescence that the damage that stress inflicts on us can lead to the most serious and long-lasting problems.”
Paul Tough
“Complete product funnels, done correctly, are where most of your money will come from.”
Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
“We believe you should write what you want but think you should do so within a framework of intelligent strategy, always considering how to reverse-engineer the market’s expectations after you’re done to get the most bang for your buck.”
Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
“When the impossible becomes merely difficult, that’s when you know you’ve won.”
Maryrose Wood
“That is the purpose of museums, of course. One does not go merely to collect facts and souvenirs and picture post cards, but to enlarge one’s notion of all that has been, and all that is, and all that might be. In this way we begin to understand what part each of us was born to play in the marvelous tale of existence.”
Maryrose Wood
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
