Our social awareness literature is geared at kids from preschool through the teen years and focuses on themes including social awareness and bystander intervention, emotional awareness, generosity, kindness, self-esteem, and self-image. Read on for book descriptions and editorial reviews—including Kirkus Reviews!
We invite you to request free books for your child, library, or educational program. We would love to send the children in your life free books!
Making Emmie Smile
Ages infant to 5
Making Emmie Smile focuses on the importance of fulfilling children’s emotional needs and is geared towards toddlers. In this picture book, family members attempt to make the child happy by offering her different material things, only to succeed in getting the child to smile once they offer personal attention.
Buy Now
Fruit of the Vine
Ages 8 to 12
Fruit of the Vine features a young boy (Justin) who is bullied by his classmates. In a dream, he finds himself on a beach where he meets a magical snake who grants him three wishes. Instead of using the wishes for his own good, he kindly makes a wish for a needy creature he meets on the beach. This book’s themes include anti-bullying and the importance of not being a bystander, while also showing how altruistic qualities can develop in children. Click here to watch the trailer to Justin and the Werloobee, a 3-D animated adaptation of Fruit of the Vine.
Buy Now
Full Moon
Ages 1 to 10
Full Moon is a level 4 reader (especially appropriate for ages 5-7) about two sisters, the younger of whom (Jessica), while trick-or-treating, begin to wonder if there really is a man on the moon. Feeling bad that the man on the moon has only moldy cheese to eat, Jessica mails him her Halloween candy and a note. She is delighted to later find a thank you note, from the “moon man” under her pillow! Or so she is made to believe. It’s a story that teaches young people about sisterly love.
Buy Now
Gathering Roses
Ages 18+
Gathering Roses is a young adult novel with a much wider appeal. Introverted and studious Lori Solomon meets nonconformist Grateful Dead follower, Nick Warren, and soon finds herself on a seemingly endless carnival ride with him. Although not always apparent to Lori, it is Nick’s precarious health condition that seems to underlie his outlook on life, influencing what he expects to get out of it as well as what he feels he needs to put into it.
Buy Now
Angel Rock Leap
Ages 16+
Angel Rock Leap is a young adult novel that poses the dramatic question,” Can a person’s life really be over at just 19?” Sarah challenges this notion when, after flunking out of school, she decides to return to her hometown to try to gain a better understanding of what might be holding her back in life. Home is the hardest place for Sarah to teach herself to stop being a victim. But it is also likely the most important place to do it. She uses her newfound knowledge about herself to pull others out of similar crises, as love is rediscovered and friendship is borne out of adversity.
Buy Now
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
Hellen Keller
Readers' Favorite Book Review
“Readers will learn that the power of affection is important, not only to a child but to people of all ages. Readers will enjoy the fact that Making Emmie Smile has a happy ending. Everybody likes a happy ending. A good book especially for those in similar circumstances with their child. This book can help parents know that they are not the only ones in this situation. All it takes is a little patience.”
Kirkus Book Review
“Justin wonders why his classmates and his brother bully him. In a dream, he finds himself on a beach, where he spots a “pitiful,” odd-looking creature crying. Then Justin steps on a magical snake, who claims that anyone who steps on him will get three wishes…The topics that Weisberg and Yoffe (All Across Canada, 2008) address are commendable, and Justin is a sympathetic protagonist.”
Readers' Favorite Book Review
“I always love reading Halloween stories and Full Moon is one of my favorites that I have read recently. It’s a story that will be very relatable to children… The different characters are well written and easily liked and the illustrations are beautifully done and go along perfectly with the storyline. It’s a great book that I definitely recommend parents get for their child.”
Bookloons Book Review
“…we come to understand the characters, their flaws, and what has brought them together. You will be turning the pages until the very end, as you are taken on their journey of self discovery.”
Kirkus Book Review
“…Authors Weisberg (Making Emmie Smile, 2012, etc.) and Yoffe develop Sarah’s obsession with the initially bland high school bully, Pamela, with great skill….A unique voice emerges from an unlikely heroine in this quickly paced coming-of-age story.”