Kids books about Confidence

Confidence is when you feel certain. It is having trust for yourself and for others. Sometimes, when you try new things, you feel nervous and are scared of trying. When you are confident, you don’t let your doubts keep you from trying your best. When you are confident, you don’t fall apart when you fail, but you learn from your mistakes and you try again.

Oh man, do I need to read and re-read this definition of confidence. Motherhood I think is just one big daily repeating confidence crisis. I don’t know about you, but I’m ALWAYS second-guessing if I’m doing the right thing for my kids. Did I pick the right curriculum? Am I overloading us with activities? Am I doing enough science experiments? Are they understanding math? Would they be better off at a public school? Or, if my kids were at a brick and mortar school, I’d be asking “Should I be homeschooling?”

When I have these kinds of doubts, I like to think about what I would say to my friend if she were confiding these same thoughts to me. I’d tell her that she is the best mom for her kids. She knows them best. She can trust her gut because her gut is almost always right. So, I can trust my gut too and be confident that even if we have to switch math curriculums again, we are going to keep trying our best. It’s okay if things don’t go perfectly the first time around. We will pivot, learn, and try, try, try again.

This is what I want for my kids too – I want them to be flexible and confident that they can take on the task of trying new things. This week, we read about confident characters. We talked about things we are confident about, and areas where we need a bit more encouragement. We talked about times where we felt frustrated with ourselves and how we came to feel confident later.

Of note, the books I suggest below are not *just* about confidence. They are rich stories with many different virtues present. However, they are stories where I see confident characters and have found helpful in talking to my kids about confidence.

If you missed why I am taking on this task of going through a different virtue each week, check out my post Kids Books About Assertiveness.

Kids Books About Confidence

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

In this story, a little girl is confident that she can make a magnificent thing – but she gets frustrated when it’s not perfect on the first try. After cooling down, she walks back to her workspace and sees good things in a lot of the mistakes.

You Are Special by Max Lucado

This is a sweet story about not letting the criticism of others destroy our self-confidence.

Swimmy by Leo Leonni

I love how Swimmy is a confident leader in this story. He rallies the other fish together so that they all stay safe.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

I just love Harold. I love how he just draws, but then things he didn’t anticipate happen and Harold adapts quickly to resolve his problem with another drawing.

Franklin Rides a Bike by Paulette Bourgeois

Learning to ride a bike has been tricky in our house. We live on a pretty urban street in a downtown community in Silicon Valley. I struggle with confidence in the traffic around us, and unsurprisingly, my kids have struggled to feel confident that they can learn to ride their bikes. In this story, Franklin problem solves how he can feel safer and more confident as he learns. My daughter was really inspired by this book, asking for elbow and knee pads for Christmas, which she wore as she learned to ride her Strider balance bike. Once she got the balance down and the pedaling on her tricycle – I suggested she try balancing on her bike and she pedaled away!

I hope you’ve found these book suggestions helpful. Where do you lack confidence as a parent? How can you encourage your kids in their confidence? Do you have any books you love that have confident characters? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!

-Heather

ps: This post contains Amazon-affiliate links. They are one small way I can fund my book-buying habit. I am so thankful to all my readers, and grateful for those of you who support my blog through clicking those links.