Books for Your Pandemic Baby
(Who is Growing Up)
It would be an understatement to say that the pandemic affected everyone, but perhaps kids most of all! Your pandemic baby is growing up now and venturing out into a world that may be overwhelming. (Let’s be honest, it would be overwhelming sometimes whether or not you grew up partially in isolation!) These books can help kids deal with big emotions, seek out new friends, and get excited about exploring the world around them. They might just help you as well—I know they left a lasting impression on me!
A quiet child in a boisterous family, Emma Wen dreams of a world that is peaceful and silent. When she reads about the blue whale – with a heart so big her father could stand in it – she has an idea. She fashions a boat out of household objects and sails from her bedroom into the mouth of a whale, where she settles in happily. Emma has finally found her peace and quiet. That is until another child, Owen Tang, arrives inside the whale and is loud, noisy and “everything she is running away from”.
Emma and Owen’s unlikely friendship blossoms inside the microcosm of the whale in a beautifully told story of friendship and finding your own voice in a world that is “filled with too much of everything, everywhere.”
Only likes quiet time, and they definitely like being alone. All the other birds are too loud and too rough! Only decides to create a peaceful space that’s just for them, but when a friend shows up wanting to try some quiet time too, the two birds must figure out a way to be sure no one feels left out.
Celebrate being with those you love most, whether in person or apart! Pandemic baby or not, this is a book we all can relate to.
When a young girl isn’t able to leave her home, she reflects on what she misses. Is it going to the beach or visiting a city? Seeing a movie or going out to dinner? No! It’s not the places she misses, it’s the landscape inside the people she loves. In this heartfelt and joyful ode to caring, community and connection, a young girl learns what matters most.
When Little Hedgehog hears about a mysterious Friend Ship that can help her no longer feel lonely, she sets off on a quest to find it.
Hedgehog imagines a ship filled with friends of all kinds! How lovely!
She braves the open seas in a boat of her own to track the ship down, and along her journey, she meets other lonely animals eager to find the Friend Ship as well. They search north. They search south. They search east.
Hedgehog and her new friends can’t find the Ship anywhere! Until she realizes she knows just where the Friend Ship is . . .
Dragonboy is curious. He is playful, pensive, and kind. More than anything, he is himself: an imaginative little boy who loves to be a dragon. His stuffed-animal friends—Darwin, Yellow Kitty, Simon, and Drako—are always by his side as he explores and discovers something new. Because the best part of an adventure is being with the ones who know you best.
It’s Mila’s first day of school, but mixed with excitement is worry. What if she can’t find her classroom? What if no one likes her? What if she’s too nervous to speak up? With a little advice from her brother, she learns that she has everything she needs right in her Invisible Backpack: an Invisible Microphone to help her find her voice, an Invisible Flashlight for when she’s feeling lost, an Invisible Net to catch her if she falls, and much more. Her pack is bottomless! The Invisible String is the very first thing that she puts in her pack—and each time she uses it, it gets bigger and better.
In this moving story, a child and their grandfather take a walk in the woods and discover more about themselves.
Finn is in a horrible mood and doesn’t want to talk about it. After some persuading, though, they agree to go for a hike with Grandpa. Throughout their forest walk, they see many different things: big, strong trees with networks of roots growing underneath, still water with schools of fish swimming below, and an expectant bird with eggs nestled under her. It’s when the pair pass fellow hikers that Finn realizes that people, just like the elements of nature, are more than they appear. Grandpa explains that sometimes beneath a person who seems like they won’t understand what you’re feeling, is someone feeling the exact same way.
