Social Skills For Kids

Hey, would you like to be my friend? Great. You just need to follow all MY rules, and we'll get along just fine. Kids who read this funny book will see a bad friendship firsthand through the over-the-top satirical interactions with the main character. There are follow-up questions at the end of the book to help prompt discussions.

When you can communicate effectively with your children, you unlock the secret to a deeper connection. Talking to children is an art, and it requires a different mindset than the one you apply when you’re talking to adults. Yet, the things you’re about to discover about talking to kids will help you in your adult interactions too.

When Theo's photography project is mysteriously vandalized at school, there are five suspected students who all say, "It wasn't me." Theo just wants to forget about the humiliating incident, but his favorite teacher is determined to get to the bottom of it and has the six of them come into school over vacation to talk. She calls it "Justice Circle". The six students - the Nerd, the Princess, the Jock, the Screw Up, the Weirdo, and the Nobody - think of it as detention. A.k.a. their worst nightmare. That is until they realize they might get along after all, despite their differences.

The Papadakis family takes in a foster child, a troubled young girl named Lou, and Kristy soon discovers that Lou's difficult behavior makes her a real challenge to baby-sit.

When a mysterious grey pony called Ozzie appears in the paddock by her home, 12-year-old Clodagh's life is about to change dramatically. Charged with caring for him by the local manor's owner, she quickly befriends him. But what will happen when his absent owner unexpectedly reappears and sells him to a riding school with a very bad reputation? Can Clodagh save her new pony friend? Or does she have to say goodbye to Ozzie forever? Join Clodagh and Ozzie in their very first adventure to find out!

What happens when a star player ends up on the worst team? He either learns to lose or he stops playing the game he loves. These are the choices facing Jake, who has gone from champion to last place, testing his sportsmanship every time his soccer team gets waxed. It is his teammate Kevin who shows Jake that being a good captain means scoring and assisting off the field as much as being the star player on it.

From a Harvard faculty member and oral language specialist, an invaluable guide that gives listeners evidence-based tools and techniques to communicate more effectively with children in ways that let them foster relationships with less conflict and more joy and kindness.

Clement and his friends (Joe and Joel) are known as the best friends in the community. Clement was the eldest of them all, but he was smart and more intelligent than them. Clement was tall vast, and handsome, and he was bigger than his age.

Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. She has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all. What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock.

Jake Wind is trying to stay under the radar. Whose radar? Anyone who might be too interested in the fact that he has shape-shifting abilities he can’t control. Or that his parents found him as a ball of goo when he was a baby. Keeping his powers in check is crucial, though, if he wants to live a normal life and go to middle school instead of being homeschooled (and if he wants to avoid being kidnapped and experimented on, of course).

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and Rafe Khatchadorian is just trying to live in it. Life in middle school is finally starting to seem bearable - until Rafe spots his grandmother standing on the free-meal line at the local soup kitchen. In order to help bring in more money, Rafe concocts a brilliant plan - a dog-walking business that soon turns into a huge moneymaking neighborhood empire. He'll even have extra cash to buy his own WormHole Deluxe Multi-Platform GameBox!

You know how you're supposed to come up with a list of "resolutions" at the beginning of the year to try to make yourself a better person? Well, the problem is, it's not easy for me to think of ways to improve myself, because I'm pretty much one of the best people I know. But Greg's dad has other ideas. He wants Greg to change his wimpy ways, toughen up and enlist in other 'manly' endeavours.

Parker Nelson can’t wait for summer camp. She’ll have fun and make amazing memories, far away from the bullies who made seventh grade unbearable. But then something terrible happens: The mean girl who made life a living nightmare is in Parker’s cabin. Soon all the other girls turn on Parker, too—no one wants to be her friend. Except Jenny. Jenny’s the only one who is willing to listen. The only one who understands. The only one who feels the same way Parker does: that there's a deep, dark secret to making friends and she’s the only one who doesn't know it.

Thirteen-year-old Simon Renier has no idea when he boards the M.S. Orion with his cousin Forsyth Phair that their journey to Venezuela will be a dangerous one. His original plan - to return a family heirloom, a portrait of Simon Bolivar, to its rightful place - is sidetracked when cousin Forsyth is found murdered. When the portrait is stolen, all passengers and crew are suspects. Simon's newfound friends, Poly and Charles O'Keefe, and their scientist father help Simon try to find his painting, and his cousin's murderer. But will they succeed before they land?

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

Stacy Friedman is getting ready for one of the most important events of her young life—her bat mitzvah. All she wants is the perfect dress to wear, her friends by her side, and her biggest crush ever, Andy Goldfarb, to dance with her (and maybe even make out with her on the dance floor). But Stacy's well-laid plans quickly start to fall apart... Her stressed-out mother forces her to buy a hideous sequined dress that makes her look like the bride of Frankenstein. Her mitzvahs are not going well at all. And then the worst thing in the entire world happens.

After sixth grade, the very worst year of his life, Rafe Khatchadorian thinks he has it made in seventh grade. He's been accepted to art school in the big city and imagines a math-and-history-free fun zone. Wrong! It's more competitive than Rafe ever expected, and to score big in class, he needs to find a way to turn his boring life into the inspiration for a work of art. His method? Operation: Get a Life! Anything he's never done before, he's going to do it, from learning to play poker to going to a modern art museum.

From number one New York Times best seller Mike Lupica! Nick Crandall feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He doesn't fit in with his new foster parents. They don't know the first thing about sports - and he's not exactly the model student they want him to be. It's only a matter of time until they realize he's not the right kid for them. And Nick certainly doesn't belong playing varsity baseball. He's only twelve years old! His teammates want a catcher their own age. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs - to his parents, to his team, and to himself.

Isaiah is now the big man of the house. But it's a lot harder than his dad made it look. His little sister, Charlie, asks too many questions, and Mama's gone totally silent. Good thing Isaiah can count on his best friend, Sneaky, who always has a scheme for getting around the rules. Plus, his classmate Angel has a few good ideas of her own - once she stops hassling Isaiah. And when things get really tough, there's Daddy's journal, filled with stories about the amazing Isaiah Dunn, a superhero who gets his powers from beans and rice. Isaiah wishes his dad's tales were real.

When the news hits that E.T.: The Musical wasn’t nominated for a single Tony Award - not one! - the show closes, leaving Nate both out of luck and out of a job. And while Nate’s cast mates are eager to move on, Nate knows it’s back to square one, also known as Jankburg, Pennsylvania. Where horror (read: high school) awaits. Desperate to turn his life from flop to fabulous, Nate takes on a huge freshman English project with his BFF, Libby: He’s going to make a musical out of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. What could possibly go...right?