Here are 100 books that She Persisted fans have personally recommended if you like
She Persisted.
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As someone working in psychiatry, I see how helping children embrace challenges builds real resilience. When kids learn to persist through difficulty, it supports their mental health, school performance, and social growth, while giving them tools to handle adversity. The good news is that resilience and a growth mindset can be developed—and storytelling is one of the most effective ways to do this. Through books, children watch characters struggle, adapt, and grow, learning that challenges are a natural part of life.
Here are some favorite picture books that promote perseverance, creativity, and determination—showing kids that mistakes and effort are essential to achieving big dreams.
This is a wonderful book filled with positive affirmations that children can use to encourage themselves during difficult moments. It helps kids face doubts and insecurities with empowering self-talk.
Through different challenging situations, the book introduces affirmations that remind children to believe in themselves and trust that they are capable of doing hard things. It is a beautiful resource for helping children build confidence and emotional resilience.
What kids tell themselves matters! It becomes their inner voice. It can help them connect with their power within.
Mindful affirmations can help children tune out the streams of messages they get about how they should be in the world so they can listen to their own inner voice. Children can learn to tap into their inner strength and find the encouragement they need.
I Can Do Hard Things reflects the beautiful diversity and connection in our world. A wonderful addition to your home or school library.
As someone working in psychiatry, I see how helping children embrace challenges builds real resilience. When kids learn to persist through difficulty, it supports their mental health, school performance, and social growth, while giving them tools to handle adversity. The good news is that resilience and a growth mindset can be developed—and storytelling is one of the most effective ways to do this. Through books, children watch characters struggle, adapt, and grow, learning that challenges are a natural part of life.
Here are some favorite picture books that promote perseverance, creativity, and determination—showing kids that mistakes and effort are essential to achieving big dreams.
This is such a wonderful read for children, especially when they have ever felt frustrated or upset when something they tried didn’t work out.
The story beautifully shows that frustration and failure are normal parts of the creative and learning process.
In the book, a young girl sets out to build the most magnificent thing. Along the way, she fails again and again. However, through persistence, reflection, and creativity, she eventually succeeds. It’s a powerful reminder for young learners that big dreams often require patience and perseverance.
Award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires has created a charming picture book about an unnamed girl and her very best friend, who happens to be a dog.
The girl has a wonderful idea. “She is going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. All she has to do is make it, and she makes things all the time. Easy-peasy!” But making her magnificent thing is anything but easy, and the girl tries and fails, repeatedly. Eventually, the girl gets really, really mad. She is so mad, in…
As someone working in psychiatry, I see how helping children embrace challenges builds real resilience. When kids learn to persist through difficulty, it supports their mental health, school performance, and social growth, while giving them tools to handle adversity. The good news is that resilience and a growth mindset can be developed—and storytelling is one of the most effective ways to do this. Through books, children watch characters struggle, adapt, and grow, learning that challenges are a natural part of life.
Here are some favorite picture books that promote perseverance, creativity, and determination—showing kids that mistakes and effort are essential to achieving big dreams.
In the story, Jabari attempts to build a flying machine, but he becomes frustrated when it doesn’t work the way he wanted it to. With encouragement from his father, Jabari learns an important lesson about patience, perseverance, and the power of trying again.
The story also highlights the value of accepting help from others, even when we initially think we can do everything on our own. It’s a meaningful reminder for children about persistence, problem-solving, and learning from setbacks.
Jabari is inventing a machine that will fly all the way across the yard! But making it go from CRASH to WHOOSH will take grit, patience, and maybe even a little help from his sister. Jabari is making a flying machine in his backyard! "It'll be easy. I don't need any help," he declares. But it doesn't work! Jabari is frustrated. Good thing Dad is there for a pep talk and his little sister, Nika, is there to assist, fairy wings and all. With the endearing father-child dynamic of Jabari Jumps and engaging mixed-media illustrations, Gaia Cornwall's tale shows that…
Serendipity is a magical story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter, introducing us to the traditional way of living of the Scottish Travellers and their Cant language.
A fantasy tale for children of 8 years old and older inspired by three real places in Scotland. Serendipity takes us to…
As someone working in psychiatry, I see how helping children embrace challenges builds real resilience. When kids learn to persist through difficulty, it supports their mental health, school performance, and social growth, while giving them tools to handle adversity. The good news is that resilience and a growth mindset can be developed—and storytelling is one of the most effective ways to do this. Through books, children watch characters struggle, adapt, and grow, learning that challenges are a natural part of life.
Here are some favorite picture books that promote perseverance, creativity, and determination—showing kids that mistakes and effort are essential to achieving big dreams.
This book is such a fun read and highlights the power of learning from mistakes—even for adults!
The story follows a girl who is famous for never making mistakes. But when she finally makes one big mistake, her reaction becomes the best part of the story—she laughs.
This moment teaches an important lesson: everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes are part of learning and growing. The book encourages children to let go of perfectionism and embrace trial and error as a natural part of trying new things.
Every student, teacher, and perfectionist needs to read this book about learning and growing from your mistakes! The perfect introduction to growth mindset, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes is:
A growth mindset book for kids A teacher must-have for classrooms An educational book for ages 4-8 (and for everyone learning growth mindset!)
Beatrice Bottomwell has NEVER (not once!) made a mistake. She never forgets her math homework, she never wears mismatched socks, and she ALWAYS wins the yearly talent show at school. In fact, the entire town calls her The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes!
DeAnne Blanton retired from the National Archives in Washington, DC after 31 years of service as a reference archivist specializing in 18th and 19th century U.S. Army records. She was recognized within the National Archives as well as in the historical and genealogical communities as a leading authority on the American Civil War; 19th century women’s history; and the history of American women in the military.
This book provides outstanding biographies of the female luminaries of the Civil War, such as Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, and Dr. Mary Walker, while also introducing readers to lesser-known women who made an impact during the great sectional conflict. Beautifully written and full of rare photographs, Women of the Civil War is captivating.
I have always loved children. I love tiny babies just discovering the world around them. I love elementary-age kids who are taking pride in developing new skills and learning how to deal with challenges. I love teens who are questioning and rethinking the things they thought they knew. I also love the science and practice of psychology (my profession for over thirty years) and, I love books. To date, I have written nine books. My audience ranges from preschool to high school and topics include strategies to understand and cope with problems as well as psychology as a topic of study.
An accessible introduction to the remarkable story of Helen Keller. Left blind and deaf as toddler, her future looked dim. But a talented and sensitive teacher, Ann Sullivan, enabled Helen to communicate with the world in alternative ways. Colorful illustrations and child-friendly explanations present Helen’s remarkable journal to a young audience.
Her bravery, brilliance, and spirit brought hope to millions of disabled people.
Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. When she was just a year and a half old, she was left blind and deaf from an illness. In a very simple text, the author covers the important facts of Helen Keller's life. Besides her extraordinary work with teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan, she published several books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
For almost thirty years, David Adler’s Picture Book Biography series has profiled famous people who changed the world. Colorful, kid-friendly…
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
I have always been obsessed with the idea of other worlds I can’t sense but can somehow contrive to glimpse, whether with a magic amulet or some fabulous technology. As a kid growing up in the woods and devouring fantasy novels and biology texts alike, I couldn’t decide between science or writing as a way of exploring the unknown, and ultimately, I ended up doing both: becoming a writer specializing in marine and coastal environments, one of the many places in our world where the deeper we look at the senses of the creatures living there, the more we realize just how limited our own perceptions are.
It has been years, and I cannot stop thinking about the visual this book left me with: a young woman sleeping in a makeshift plastic bubble under the sea's surface, tethered to a walkway across the Indian Ocean. I love when a speculative fiction book dives deep into exactly how a futuristic technology looks, feels, smells, integrates into life, and doesn’t just fill a plot point—which is probably why I was left with such a vivid image of this tent-bubble-habitat-material.
I am also an avid camper and know what it’s like to trust techy material in inhospitable circumstances. Take that feeling of trying to sleep while rain pours on a tent you hope is as waterproof as advertised. Now multiply it by 100 and add a violently undulating walkway across the Indian Ocean, and you get why I love this book.
One day Meena gets out of bed covered in blood, with mysterious snakebites on her chest. Her worst fears have been realised: someone is after her and she must flee India at once. As she plots her escape, she learns of The Trail, an energy-harvesting bridge spanning the Arabian Sea that has become a refuge for itinerant vagabonds and loners on the run. This is her salvation.
Slipping out in the cover of night, with a knapsack full of supplies including a pozit GPS system, a scroll reader, and a sealable waterproof pod, Meena sets off for Ethiopia, the place…
As an attorney, former TV broadcaster, and workplace consultant, I’ve devoted my career to empowering women and confronting systemic inequities. My passion stems from personal experience navigating the complexities of workplace harassment, which inspired me to write my book and guide others through similar challenges. I am continually drawn to books that illuminate the hidden power structures and offer practical tools for resilience, empowerment, and self-advocacy. The works on this list have profoundly shaped my perspective, providing inspiration and clarity in both my professional and personal journey. I hope they resonate with you as deeply as they have with me.
This book gave me permission to embrace and harness my anger as a tool for change. Chemaly’s exploration of how society suppresses women’s anger—and why we must reclaim it—is profound and eye-opening.
Her writing is sharp, relatable, and filled with research that helps contextualize why our anger is not only valid but vital. It left me feeling more equipped to channel my emotions into meaningful action.
A conversation-shifting book urging 21st-century women to understand their anger, embrace its power, and use it as a tool for positive change
'How many women cry when angry because we've held it in for so long? How many discover that anger turned inward is depression? Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her will be good for women. After all, women have a lot to be angry about.' GLORIA STEINEM
Women are angry, and it isn't hard to figure out why. We are underpaid, overworked, thwarted and diminished. The assertive among us are labelled bitches, while the expressive among us are considered shrill.…
I have loved the history of the West since I was a child, as my family has lived here for over a century. I devoured historical fiction about pioneer girls in grammar school (including the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder), and as I got into college, I expanded my reading universe to include books about women’s roles in the West, and the meaning of this region in overall American history. This concept is what drew me to study the cultural influence of dude ranching, where women have always been able to shine -- and where I placed the protagonist of my first novel.
The title of this marvelous group biography is a play on the title of the film and comic book series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and suits the characters perfectly. Natalie Curtis, Carol Stanley, Alice Klauber, and Mary Cabot Wheelwright left their safe and secure lives and found a calling in the Southwest in the early 20th century. Along the way, they met important Hopi and Navajo leaders, as well as western enthusiasts like Theodore Roosevelt. This book is a marvelous read because the author weaves their lives together in ways that show how much they had in common, as well as how individual each woman was.
WILLA Literary Award, 2016Reading the West Book Award for Nonfiction, MPIBASilver Medal, US History, 2016 IPPY AwardsWestern Writers of America Spur Award finalistLadies of the Canyons is the true story of remarkable women who left the security and comforts of genteel Victorian society and journeyed to the American Southwest in search of a wider view of themselves and their world.
Educated, restless, and inquisitive, Natalie Curtis, Carol Stanley, Alice Klauber, and Mary Cabot Wheelwright were plucky, intrepid women whose lives were transformed in the first decades of the twentieth century by the people and the landscape of the American Southwest.…
A gay retelling of the classic fairy tale--a scrumptious love story featuring ungrateful stepsiblings, a bake-off, and a fairy godfather.
Cinderelliot is stuck at home taking care of his ungrateful stepsister and stepbrother. When Prince Samuel announces a kingdom-wide competition to join the royal staff as his baker, the stepsiblings…
My passion for leadership and aspiring women leaders comes from my own leadership experiences and working with women and men executives and aspiring executives, every day. I had to make some difficult work choices in my 20s and 30s (with four young children) and was wonderfully supported by some wise women. Many of my choices were different from my peers and we continue to have to make more difficult choices than our male colleagues. We need to help each other, every day. I lead a blended life co-leading an executive search and leadership advisory firm, while also being a mother, grandmother, wife, mentor, friend, and lover of good music, theatre, food, wine, and curious people.
For me, Sandberg’s book remains a major and critical contribution to how women lead, how we are perceived, and how we can improve as leaders.
It is also one of the most misquoted and maligned books which I find disappointing. Those who are overly critical probably have not read the book or are biased because of Sandberg’s employer. When I read Lean In, I thought, ‘Great, I don’t need to do all that research as it has been done.'
It inspired me instead to share my own story and that of others who inspire me every day. Sandberg reminds us that so much that is in our hands, to not be dissuaded, but to ‘lean in’ and create our own agendas at work, home, and everywhere.
Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated opinion pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership.
Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or…
