Child Esteem

Hex doesn’t know why he does the things he does—why he sometimes stands up in class to look out the window or ask an unrelated question. He also doesn’t know why he threw the rock that day in the woods. He didn’t mean for the girl to fall and break her arm. But he’s blamed anyway. Enraged at how unfair life is, Hex runs into the woods and finds himself in a strange clearing where a strange old woman offers him a deal: she’ll rid the world of those who wronged him. All he has to do is accept. But what Hex doesn’t know is that someone else has been offered the same deal.

Nearly all adults will become parents at some point in their lives—around 89.6 per cent of the adult population worldwide. While most of us aspire to be excellent parents, the endless challenges of parenthood can leave us feeling baffled and frustrated. Such difficulties can be seen in all developmental phases, as both parents of toddlers and teenagers can attest. Several variables work together to help children build resilience. These elements operate as a safety net for the youngsters, allowing them to grow confident.

Even though twelve-year-old Alexis was born in Hawaii, she won’t surf or swim with her friends - not since the ocean and its hidden creatures swept her out to sea. Instead, she grabs her best detective hat and decodes her mom’s latest challenge.

Allie thinks she's a normal kid with normal problems on her first day of seventh grade. She hopes for a fresh start despite her mom being overseas with the Army, again. But none of that matters when she discovers that her mom has gone missing. On the same day of her mom’s disappearance, Allie finds the necklace her mom was never without. When the necklace magically teleports her new friend Daniel, she learns that her necklace contains an ancient magic and might be the key to finding her mom.

Bettie and Jennifer Youngs are back with a new audiobook in their award-winning series. These inspirational stories will encourage teens to deal with a variety of subjects that focus on being accepted and cool without compromising values. This is great inspiration, straight from one teen to another.

Teens will be reminded of the power of love, friendship, integrity, compassion, service, forgiveness, and many other traits and qualities that will inspire them to live with meaning and purpose. These easy-to-remember affirmations are gems of truth and wisdom - powerful remedies for distraction, discouragement, or confusion.

The audiobook is divided into units on self-worth, self-respect, and self-esteem; friendship; love and meaningful relationships; finding meaning, purpose, and direction in life; giving, sharing, and making a difference; encouragement and success; and coping with pressure, stress, and tough issues. Real teens reviewed this work, and the authors completed it with the collaborative feedback of those teens.

Like its best-selling predecessor, this book deftly combines teen contributions and responses with the commentary and sensitive advice of coauthors Bettie B. Youngs, PhD, EdD, and Jennifer Leigh Youngs, teaching teens that we each can make life better through our love and compassion. Sure to become a treasured companion, this trusted guide will help all its listeners journey toward making their lives better and brighter.

Seventeen year-old Emily has accepted the truth of her past trauma and made peace with her battered egos. She's won the first battle...barely...but the war in her psyche still rages. The same day Mom is released from rehab and Emily finishes detox, Dad announces he's ready to be a family again, throwing Emily into panic. Determined to protect her younger brothers and sister from Dad, she gathers the strength to do the hardest thing she's ever done: speak her Secret.

In this semiautobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey, is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with an incarcerated mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction, and her own battle with self-confidence. But when a new teacher at school coordinates a beauty pageant and convinces Vanessa to enter, Vanessa's view of her own world begins to change.

Music means more than anything to high school student Cate Reese; it's also what unites her with Cal Woods. Devoted classical guitar players, Cate and Cal are childhood friends newly smitten by love - until a devastating car accident rips Cal out of Cate's life forever. Blaming herself for the horrific tragedy and struggling to surface from her despair, Cate spirals downhill in a desperate attempt to ease her pain.

On a frozen Cornish moor, a 14-year-old girl lives in a trailer with her dad and little brother. Ennor's mother left years ago, when things started to go wrong - and gradually their world has fallen apart. Now her father's gravely ill, school has closed, and Ennor knows they're going to take her brother away if things don't pick up soon. Days before Christmas, when the wind is cold and her dad's health takes a turn for the worse, Ennor packs a blanket, a map, a saucepan and a gun into her rucksack, and sets off to find her mum and bring her home.

The world’s teenagers have never been so challenged as they are today. The constant demands of parents, school, work, peers, social media, athletics, music, etc. has created a generation who, while tremendously capable, are also tremendously stressed. Today’s teens are expected to not only do it all but to do it now. Having personally coached thousands of students over his years as an educator and a professional performance coach, Dr. Bernstein understands and connects with today’s young adults.

The world's teenagers have never been so challenged as they are today. The constant demands of parents, school, work, peers, social media, athletics, music, etc., has created a generation who, while tremendously capable, are also tremendously stressed. Today's teens are expected to not only do it all but to do it now.

When Darby meets Torin as a fellow counselor at the survival camp she impulsively applies to, she’s certain his main goal is to turn her world upside down, with his disheveled curly hair, irresistible dimples, and endearingly quirky habit of reciting quotes from classic movies and ancient thinkers. Darby’s not sure she can adapt to Torin’s way of viewing his past and the tragedies he's faced. Because she’s had her own share of heartache too, and as much as she wants to believe that it’s all been for a purpose, she hasn’t been able to move on.

Dancing with the Paris Opera ballet is 14-year-old Marie van Goethem's greatest joy. And yet she must honor her father's dying request to keep their poverty-stricken family together. She certainly can't count on the help of her drunken mother or selfish older sister. When famous artist Edgar Degas asks Marie to model for a sculpture, she welcomes the income - although she's hesitant to pose nude.

From a talented emerging writer comes a brave, honest, unforgettable memoir about mental illness, which breaks the silence and shatters the taboos to give hope to all those struggling to find their way through. One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she’d always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty.

Yu-ning thinks her perfect life on Rainbow Island will never end -- until a nasty dragon called the Obsidigon returns from beyond the grave. Now her beloved island is in flames, her best friend has been kidnapped, and the island's Sacred Crystals have been stolen. To make matters worse, she must venture into the dark corners of the world to uncover secrets best ignored, find a weapon thought long destroyed, and recapture seven sacred stones -- without being burned to a crisp by a very angry dragon.

Sprout Bradford has a secret. It's not what you think he'll tell you he's gay. He'll tell you about his dads drinking and his mother's death. The green fingerprints everywhere tell you when he last dyed his hair. But neither the reader nor Sprout are prepared for what happens when Sprout suddenly finds he's had a more profound effect on the lives around him than he ever thought possible. Sprout is both hilarious and gripping; a story of one boy at odds with the expected.

When an insecure teen starts impersonating someone else, her life spirals dangerously out of control in a realistic, relatable novel about finding yourself - and discovering your true friends.