100 books like I Can Do Hard Things

The Day You Begin is a lovely, lyrical reminder that we all have unique experiences and moments of not belonging, but we find connections through sharing our stories. Jacqueline Woodson’s repetitive phrase, “There will be times,” paired with the use of a 2nd person narrator, instantly draws us into the story. As a result, we feel part of the story as we think of times when we didn’t fit in or people didn’t understand our experience. So powerful!! I am a huge proponent of the power of sharing personal stories, and I often speak to groups about how sharing stories can serve as a bridge that might connect us. The Day You Begin is a glorious reflection of this truth.

Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus is the better known in this series of funny, adorably illustrated books, but I think Pigeon Has to Go to School really gets to the heart of why Pigeon is so beloved by kids: He embodies kid-ness.

He’s defiant and bratty and scared and anxious and excited and impatient and distractible and everything else that is lovable and crazy-making about your daughter/son/grandchild.

An easy read for young kids and fun to read to them.

Many kids secretly fear the questions that come up at the beginning of the school year about their family. If you are living in foster care or have been going through something difficult in your home life, talking about family can be challenging. This playfully illustrated story helps create a safe space for all different kinds of families. Great for reading at home with your child or with the whole class to nurture a welcoming environment.

We talk a lot about our word choices and mindset in my home. When my older daughter was learning something new, she would say, “I can’t do this!” We talked about how she was learning, and she’s capable of learning. Her kindergarten teacher then taught my daughter “you don’t know how… yet!” Yet is a power-packed word because it radiates hope which leads to courageous action. This book exemplifies the power of yet so well that I had to share with you. The ending sweetly reminds us that our yet goes with us.

I feel like I lived this story as a kid. I’ll bet a lot of kids do. A young boy overcomes his fear of the high dive. 

Step by step, Gaia Cornwall takes us through Jabari’s jump. Jabari starts by telling his dad he’s not scared at all. He clearly is. He delays, makes excuses. Dad never pushes. He wants this to be Jabari’s decision, Jabari’s victory. It’s so relatable, the perspective even changes to first person once Jabari is high above the pool. 

Everything rings true. It’s exactly what a scared kid would say and do. It’s exactly what I said and did when I was Jabari’s age trying to summon my own courage on the high dive. Except when I hit the water, my swim trunks fell off.

All kids deal with fears and all parents and caregivers want to shield them from them. But I learned as a mom that I couldn’t shield my kids from hurts. But I could help them develop their own shield—by teaching them how to confront their fears and equipping them with the tools they needed to deal with the inevitable stressors they would encounter in life. My older son, practical and scientific, would have loved this book! In this uplifting, rhyming story, Christina Furnival, a licensed mental health therapist and mom, presents a practical three-step lesson to help kids manage their worries, regain their cool, and strip fear of its power once and for all. I sure wish I had this book 30 years ago!

I love this book because although it was written before the pandemic, it hits home about being stuck inside—in this case, by choice! The first line is, “Logan was a stay-at-home bunny.” I’m a sucker for bunnies and the friends in this book—Logan and Luna—actually display personalities similar to that of my sons! One of my sons is daring and brave; the other, shy and unadventurous. This story shows that we may think that we are not brave at all, but when we dig deep down, we can all find our brave. Sometimes just a little bit of bravery is enough. The good news is we are all braver than we think!

Sometimes when my kids were anxious or scared I would try to use humor to help and distract them. (Sometimes it worked and sometimes they thought I was “lame.”) I’m glad author Katie Weaver took a humorous approach in this fun book! What better way to quell fears than to imagine something not-so-scary? She thought up this story as she and her kids snuggled through a thunderstorm. The gentle and subtle message within the story is: when you face your fear, you often realize it wasn't as scary as you imagined, perhaps, even fun! And, sometimes, there can even be a rewarding outcome. In this case, pie! The author includes a berry pie recipe in the back that looks delicious. I’d try it, but I’m a terrible pie-maker!

This is the first self-help book I have ever read, and I read it in 2019. I have always been honest about my battle with my mental health, from anxiety to depression. This book was recommended to me by an excellent expert in the field and it changed my view of my relationship with mental health as a battle. It sounds corny putting it into words but when you learn to accept the different parts of your personality and how they help and protect you, then it is easier to say “not right now, I need to make dinner, not crawl into bed”. The analogy that stuck with me was pulling a rope opposed by a character representing anxiety on the other side, and a pit in the middle. You can pull and pull, trying to avoid the pit, or you can… let go of the rope and accept that… show more.

My writing class encourages us to write memoirs about that time we were “the worst person in the room.” Mistakes make main characters vulnerable and relatable. As Nat pursues her first crush and alienates her friends, she turns into the kind of person you wish you could take aside for harsh truths before she ruins her life. Nat bumbles her way to better choices and there’s nothing more relatable than that.