Books like Hands Are Not for Hitting — picked by fans

As a veteran preschool teacher, parent and grandparent, I have found this amazing rhythmic tale of hide and seek to skillfully convey to toddlers and preschoolers, the unconditional love a mother has for her child. Young children do understand and embrace this book’s age-appropriate loving, reassuring words and pictures: “If you run away, I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.” The lesson learned...They, too, can count on their steadfast mother to always have their back, no matter how they choose to test their relationship. This is a fabulous example of how a picture book can effectively communicate words and actions while serving to initiate more discussion with the child regarding his own behavior and feelings.

This book shows that everyone has moods that can change each day, or within the same day...from silly to angry to sad, etc. The zany, touching verse and the fun mood-wheel that lets the children change a character’s facial expressions will help a parent and child identify and discuss both good and bad feelings and how to manage them. A wonderful book to start a discussion of revisiting misbehavior and deciding what s/he could do next time in a similar situation.

Today separation and divorce is common and moms and dads wonder how much explaining is appropriate for their 2- to 6-year old. As a preschool teacher, I found this the very best picture book available to read over and over to give children a positive glimpse of living in two happy, healthy, albeit different homes. There is not a drop of negativity in this book. It is totally upbeat, simple, honest, and encouraging. The main character, Alex (neither male nor female in name nor illustration) is quite comfortable and thankful for his two homes as Alex points out the differences. But, the one most important thing that remains the same is that Alex is loved by both Mom and Dad all the time, no matter whose house he is at. The positive focus is on what is gained and unique at each home rather than what is lost when parents… show more.

This is a wonderful tale about an armadillo, who loves to hide and spy on other animals and tell tall tales (lies) about what he hears. Cute fable of sorts on why the armadillo has such small ears. The book claims he started with very tall ears and every time he eavesdropped in other’s conversations, his ears got smaller. As a preschool teacher and grandmother, I encourage the children to “tell” us adults what is happening to get someone OUT of trouble, rather than to “tattle” on someone to get them IN trouble, which is not helpful. Through lyrical text and vivid illustrations, children learn that it is important to respect the privacy of others and avoid telling lies that hurt feelings.

This book is spot-on for children dealing with emotions. (And what child isn’t dealing with emotions??) The story revolves around a relatable situation: Sophie has a tantrum after her sister takes a toy. It doesn’t diminish or sugar-coat Sophie’s anger. Kids will identify with Sophie as she explodes, then runs into the woods. Her anger resolves through mindfulness—very helpful for kids when they have tantrums. The natural world comforts Sophie and she returns home in a calm mood, ready to be with her family, who welcomes her home. Ultimately, this is a reassuring story of unconditional love.

As a young psychologist during the Vietnam War, Edward Tick served his country not by enlisting himself but through tireless efforts to help those who returned from war traumatized. This was the first book that helped me understand that posttraumatic stress is not just some “disorder” that I’d suffer from forever. Rather, it is simply the human mind’s normal—probably unavoidable—response to combat, and, Tick argues, there is also such a thing as posttraumatic growth. He examines how ancient and modern societies train their warrior classes, noting that the ritualistic civilian-to-soldier process (we’d call it “boot camp” or “basic training”) often lacks a necessary counterpart today: that is, a formal soldier-to-civilian process, and this only compounds the issues of PTSD and the American military-civilian divide.

The late Rabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth. This was one of the last books he wrote before his death. He makes the case that religion is not only the cause of violence but also part of the solution to violence. In each chapter, he deeply analyzes a different religious text and evinces eye-opening interpretations. Perhaps most prescient are his notions of “altruistic evil” and “pathological dualism.” Pathological dualism operates in three ways: first, it dehumanizes and demonizes your enemies; second, it portrays the perpetrator as the victim; and third, it leads the perpetrator to commit altruistic evil—killing others as a perceived favor to humanity. As Sacks so movingly asserts, “When religion turns men into murderers, God weeps.”

This photographic history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre recounts a compelling event with an equally compelling pictorial narrative. Dr. Hill, who leads the African and African American studies program at the University of Oklahoma, shares this curated look at a catastrophic moment in time with a view toward acknowledging our full history and shaping our collective vision for an inclusive future.

This book revealed a threat new to me and to many readers in a culture where mothers had to hide their daughters in shallow graves in Guerrero, Mexico, adjacent to the drug cartels in order to avoid their abduction. They often masqueraded their daughters as boys or tried to make them ugly by chopping off their hair and blackening their teeth.

I was riveted by the story of Ladydi and her friends as they sought a larger world and future they instinctively knew existed. They supported each other but were constantly at risk and challenged by the dangerous drug culture and misogynistic environment they were born into.

Prayers for the Stolen is filled with vignettes and images that stayed with me, written in Jennifer’s poetic prose—she is also a poet. With imagination, narrative drive, and suspense, it explores the struggle and limited triumph of some of the women and reflects… show more.

This book is particularly enlightening concerning the ways in which cultural value may be attributed to individual bodies, armed conflict, and, indeed, to human life itself in different political, geographical, and military circumstances.

Butler compels us to examine our own practices of compassion, partisanship, and/or habits of interpretation as we (or the media) move from one location to another around the globe.