Empowering Books for Little Girls

When our daughter was born, I began looking for books with a female at the center since all of ours were about cars, trucks, and balls. I had one rule: No Princesses! Here are my top 4 empowering books for little girls:

She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton

This book highlights 13 women who changed the world. I honestly have learned a lot myself from reading this to Elodie! 

Tough Chicks by Cece Meng

This book is about three chicks who are rough and tumble. The other animals on the farm continue to tell Mother Hen to make her chicks be quiet and to stop playing in the mud. However, Mother Hen empowers her chicks to be themselves which ends up saving the farm. 

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

This fun book follows a little girl's journey of building her own invention alongside her cute pup. It doesn't work out at first, but she continues to fiddle, hammer, and persist. Her completed invention turns out to be functional for both her and the pup. 

Be Brave Little One by Marianne Richmond

This book spells out all the different ways a kid can be brave. Sometimes, brave means saying "hello" to a new friend or to mess up before you retry. 

Children's Books We Love

When it came to finding books that were representative of our family, my eye first went to books based on adoption. However, I quickly learned that those left me disappointed. They either didn't use positive adoption language (for example:"gave up for adoption") or only showed families that looked alike. I was then on the hunt for books that weren't only geared toward adoption, but were simply geared on showing different types of families/people/emotions. With that being said, here are the top 5 children's books we love in our home:

1. We Are Family

We particularly love this book because it shows so many multi-racial families. My absolute favorite line is "We handle things together, we feel each other's pain. Family is the silver lining, the sunshine after the rain."

2.  We're Different, We're the Same

This book is great because it celebrates our differences through our mouths, hair, and eyes. On the flip side it also walks through how we are the same, which is important too. My favorite line is "We're the same. We're different. That's what makes the world such fun. Many kinds of people, not just one!"

3. As Real As It Gets

This is the only adoption focused book we have on our kids' bookshelf. When I found it at an adoptive parent conference, I about cried looking through it. Our oldest son was going through a stage where he was finding power in hurtful words, particularly about him not being my biological son. This book's words are spot on and the illustrations are phenomenal at portraying the emotion of the child. My favorite line is when the mother responds, "I'm as real as it gets and I'm not giving up. I'm your mother in truth. Your mother. Forever."

4. Families, Families, Families! 

This is a really fun book that goes through different types of families. A few examples are some kids live with an aunt, some children's parents are married, and some children are adopted. It literally walks through about every combination of family you can think of! My favorite line is: "...one stepsis, three stepbros, two stepmoms, and a prize-winning rose, a robot butler to serve you tea, the world's biggest grandpa, or whatever it might be. If you love each other, then you are a family."

5.  I Love You So...

This is a great book for toddlers and preschoolers. It describes a parent's love in multiple ways and even goes into how a parent still loves a child even when they've "broken the rules or made a big mess".  My favorite part in the book is at the very end, "I can't imagine life before you came along. You are the music to my dance and my song. I am meant for you, and you are meant for me, the one I love forevermore. Undeniably." 

+ If you are interested in learning more about adoption and the services we provide at Christian Adoption Consultants, I would love to chat! Feel free to email me at meg@christianadoptionconsultant.com. +