When New York Times best-selling author Lauren Tarshis was asked to choose her favorite children’s books about self-acceptance, she knew the importance of celebrating and extolling this virtue in children’s literature — among many other qualities that it’s connected to. When children are able to accept themselves for who they really are, it shapes and grows their confidence as they move through the world.
“So much of my work at Scholastic and writing the I Survived series has led me to study the topic of resilience — how we are able to process and move forward after experiencing difficult experiences,” says Tarshis. “I’ve learned that resilience is connected to other emotional skills, like being self-aware, being able to understand our own emotions, and being able to feel connected to other people.”
When writing her newest release, Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose, Tarshis considered what it means to be fully accepted for everything you are. This is especially important when children are learning to do that with themselves.
“As I began working on Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose, I was naturally drawn to this topic — to creating a story that is funny and engaging, but that also helps very young children begin to build these kinds of emotional skills,” says Tarshis.
