Books — Children's

Children's

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List price: $3.99
Author: Mercer Mayer
Brand: Random House Books for Young Readers

This well-loved Little Critter picture book has become a modern classic. It's the tale of a father-and-son camping trip filled with Little Critter's mistakes and good intentions. In spite of difficulties, however, the happy father and son manage to put up their tent, catch fish for dinner, and sleep beneath the stars. In spite of minimal text, the story is full and rich, with endearing illustrations from start to finish.

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The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Younger Girls, Revised Edition

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List price: $12.99
Author: Valorie Schaefer

Our best-selling body book for girls just got even better! With all-new illustrations and updated content for girls ages 8 and up, it features tips, how-tos, and facts from the experts. You'll find answers to questions about your changing body, from hair care to healthy eating, bad breath to bras, periods to pimples, and everything in between. Once you feel comfortable with what's happening, you'll be ready to move on to the The Care & Keeping of You 2!

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Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)

Lowest new price: $43.00
Lowest used price: $35.52
List price: $86.93
Author: J. K. Rowling
Brand: Arthur A. Levine Books

Now for the first time ever, J.K. Rowling’s seven bestselling Harry Potter books are available in a stunning paperback boxed set! The Harry Potter series has been hailed as “one for the ages” by Stephen King and “a spellbinding saga’ by USA Today. And most recently, The New York Times called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the “fastest selling book in history.” This is the ultimate Harry Potter collection for Harry Potter fans of all ages!

Features:

HARRY POTTER COLLECTION

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Summer Bridge Activities, Grades 2 - 3: NONE

Lowest new price: $8.60
Lowest used price: $8.91
List price: $14.95

School stops for summer…learning never should! The award-winning Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook series is aligned to Common Core State Standards and was developed to help parents support their children academically year-round. While there are many other summer workbooks available, Summer Bridge Activities(R) remains the #1 choice recommended by teachers. In only 15 minutes a day, the activities in the Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook help your second grade child keep skills sharp and feel confident for third grade! --Each workbook is divided into three sections which correspond to the three months of traditional summer vacation. Sections begin with a goal-setting activity, a word list, and information for parents about the fitness and character development activities located throughout the section. Extension activities also encourage outdoor learning, science experiments, and social studies exercises. With bonus flash cards and a colorful award certificate, Summer Bridge Activities(R) is all you need for learning fun all summer long!

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How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

Lowest new price: $16.49
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List price: $27.00
Author: Paul Tough

Why do some children succeed while others fail?

The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs.

But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control.

How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough traces the links between childhood stress and life success. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to help children growing up in poverty.

Early adversity, scientists have come to understand, can not only affect the conditions of children’s lives, it can alter the physical development of their brains as well. But now educators and doctors around the country are using that knowledge to develop innovative interventions that allow children to overcome the constraints of poverty. And with the help of these new strategies, as Tough’s extraordinary reporting makes clear, children who grow up in the most painful circumstances can go on to achieve amazing things.

This provocative and profoundly hopeful book has the potential to change how we raise our children, how we run our schools, and how we construct our social safety net. It will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.

Q&A with Paul Tough

Q. What made you want to write How Children Succeed?

A. In 2008, I published my first book, Whatever It Takes, about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone. I spent five years reporting that book, but when I finished it, I realized I still had a lot of questions about what really happens in childhood. How Children Succeed is an attempt to answer those questions, which for many of us are big and mysterious and central in our lives: Why do certain children succeed while other children fail? Why is it, exactly, that poor children are less likely to succeed, on average, than middle-class children? And most important, what can we all do to steer more kids toward success?

Q. Where did you go to find the answers?

A. My reporting for this book took me all over the country, from a pediatric clinic in a low-income San Francisco neighborhood to a chess tournament in central Ohio to a wealthy private school in New York City. And what I found as I reported was that there is a new and groundbreaking conversation going on, out of the public eye, about childhood and success and failure. It is very different than the traditional education debate. There are economists working on this, neuroscientists, psychologists, medical doctors. They are often working independently from one another. They don’t always coordinate their efforts. But they’re beginning to find some common ground, and together they’re reaching some interesting and important conclusions.

Q. A lot of your reporting for this book was in low-income neighborhoods. Overall, what did you learn about kids growing up in poverty?

A. A lot of what we think we know about the effect of poverty on a child’s development is just plain wrong. It’s certainly indisputable that growing up in poverty is really hard on children. But the conventional wisdom is that the big problem for low-income kids is that they don’t get enough cognitive stimulation early on. In fact, what seems to have more of an effect is the chaotic environments that many low-income kids grow up in and the often stressful relationships they have with the adults around them. That makes a huge difference in how children’s brains develop, and scientists are now able to trace a direct route from those early negative experiences to later problems in school, health, and behavior.

The problem is that science isn’t yet reflected in the way we run our schools and operate our social safety net. And that’s a big part of why so many low-income kids don’t do well in school. We now know better than ever what kind of help they need to succeed in school. But very few schools are equipped to deliver that help.

Q. Many readers were first exposed to your reporting on character through your article in the New York Times Magazine in September 2011, which was titled "What If the Secret to Success Is Failure?" How does failure help us succeed?

A. That’s an idea that I think was best expressed by Dominic Randolph, the head of the Riverdale Country School, an exclusive private school in the Bronx where they’re now doing some interesting experiments with teaching character. Here’s how he put it: "The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure. And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything."

That idea resonated with a lot of readers. I don’t think it’s quite true that failure itself helps us succeed. In fact, repeated failures can be quite devastating to a child’s development. What I think is important on the road to success is learning to deal with failure, to manage adversity. That’s a skill that parents can certainly help their children develop--but so can teachers and coaches and mentors and neighbors and lots of other people.

Q. How did writing this book affect you as a parent?

A. My wife and I became parents for the first time just as I started reporting this book, and our son Ellington is now three. Those are crucial years in a child’s development, and I spent a lot of them reading papers on the infant brain and studies on attachment and trauma and stress hormones, trying not to get too overwhelmed.

In the end, though, this research had a surprising effect: it made me more relaxed as a parent. When Ellington was born, I was very much caught up in the idea of childhood as a race--the faster a child develops skills, the better he does on tests, the better he’ll do in life. Having done this reporting, I’m less concerned about my son’s reading and counting ability. Don’t get me wrong, I still want him to know that stuff. But I think he’ll get there in time. What I’m more concerned about is his character--or whatever the right synonym is for character when you’re talking about a three-year-old. I want him to be able to get over disappointments, to calm himself down, to keep working at a puzzle even when it’s frustrating, to be good at sharing, to feel loved and confident and full of a sense of belonging. Most important, I want him to be able to deal with failure.

That’s a difficult thing for parents to give their children, since we have deep in our DNA the urge to shield our kids from every kind of trouble. But what we’re finding out now is that in trying to protect our children, we may actually be harming them. By not giving them the chance to learn to manage adversity, to cope with failure, we produce kids who have real problems when they grow up. Overcoming adversity is what produces character. And character, even more than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting success.

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Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-4: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning, and Pirates Past Noon

Lowest new price: $8.99
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List price: $19.96
Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Brand: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Get ready for a world of adventure with the first four titles in the beloved Magic Tree House series!

Jack and his little sister Annie are just two regular kids from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. Then they discover a mysterious tree house packed with all sorts of books...and their lives are never the same! Soon they are traveling through time and space in the magic tree house and having amazing adventures. Whether it's watching baby dinosaurs hatch, finding a secret passage in a castle, helping a ghost queen in an Egyptian pyramid, or finding pirate treasure, readers won't want to miss a single story!

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Summer Bridge Activities, Grades K - 1: NONE

Lowest new price: $8.08
Lowest used price: $7.92
List price: $14.95

School stops for summer…learning never should! The award-winning Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook series is aligned to Common Core State Standards and was developed to help parents support their children academically year-round. While there are many other summer workbooks available, Summer Bridge Activities(R) remains the #1 choice recommended by teachers. In only 15 minutes a day, the activities in the Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook help your kindergartner keep skills sharp and feel confident for first grade! --Each workbook is divided into three sections which correspond to the three months of traditional summer vacation. Sections begin with a goal-setting activity, a word list, and information for parents about the fitness and character development activities located throughout the section. Extension activities also encourage outdoor learning, science experiments, and social studies exercises. With bonus flash cards and a colorful award certificate, Summer Bridge Activities(R) is all you need for learning fun all summer long!

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Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Collection (Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks)

Lowest new price: $23.25
Lowest used price: $19.99
List price: $44.95
Author: Dr. Seuss
Brand: Amulet Books

A perfect gift for new parents, birthday celebrations, and happy occasions of all kinds, this collection of five beloved Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss—The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, and Fox in Socks—will be cherished by young and old alike. Ideal for reading aloud or reading alone, they will begin a child on the adventure of a lifetime!

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Disney Storybook Collection Bundle

Lowest new price: $27.99
List price: $63.96
Author: Disney
Brand: Disney Press
Model: FBA-|321663

Featuring your favorite Disney characters, these four bestselling storybook collections have been completely redesigned with all new covers, gilded pages, newly edited text, and a classic new look with over 250 illustrations in each--including full-page artwork from the Disney archives. This set includes: Disney Bedtime Favorites, Playhouse Disney Storybook, Walt Disney's Classic Storybook, and DisneyPixar Storybook Collection.

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Summer Bridge Activities, Grades 4 - 5: NONE

Lowest new price: $8.23
Lowest used price: $8.74
List price: $14.95

School stops for summer…learning never should! The award-winning Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook series is aligned to Common Core State Standards and was developed to help parents support their children academically year-round. While there are many other summer workbooks available, Summer Bridge Activities(R) remains the #1 choice recommended by teachers. In only 15 minutes a day, the activities in the Summer Bridge Activities(R) workbook help your fourth grade child keep skills sharp and feel confident for fifth grade. --Each workbook is divided into three sections which correspond to the three months of traditional summer vacation. Sections begin with a goal-setting activity, a word list, and information for parents about the fitness and character development activities located throughout the section. Extension activities also encourage outdoor learning, science experiments, and social studies exercises. With bonus flash cards and a colorful award certificate, Summer Bridge Activities(R) is all you need for learning fun all summer long!

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