Books That Make A Positive Difference....By My Friend & Author, Julia Cook

Earlier this year, a teacher librarian friend from Portland introduced me to her wonderful friend and author Julia Cook.  A couple weeks later, I received a whole stack of Julia's books. As I sat and read her books, I thought about the impact these books will have on children and all the ways teachers and families can use them.  

On a flyer sticking out from the books, I saw the words....

Books That Make A Positive Difference! Bibliotherapy in Action, and I couldn't agree more!  

Julia, a former teacher and school counselor with a Master’s Degree in Elementary School

Counseling, now writes children's books and visits schools, to make a positive difference in the lives of all who read them.  

As I spoke to Julia on the phone this week, she shared, 

In order to teach children, you must enter their view of the world. When you read a good book to a children, it goes right into their heads.  If that book is full of life-skills, the life skills will spill off and when you pull the book away, the life skills stay inside their heads and allow them to solve their problems from the inside out…as opposed to you helping them solve them from the outside in.  

This carries through in her books as they are presented through the world-view of a child and are geared toward making a positive difference in the lives of all who read them. 

Julia has written dozens of books over the topics of...

...health, mental health, friends, communication, parents, behavior, and life skills.  You will find this list here on her site. 

She continues to think of new topics that are important to the development of children and has several being published in the upcoming months. 

We are so lucky at Van Meter, because Julia is coming to our school to work with the students and teachers on October 24, 2018.  She will also speak and meet our families at a special literacy night.

It is fun to walk by this display in our elementary, as our guidance counselor, Sara, and teachers have been sharing, reading and discussing Julia's books. 

In the library, Jessica and I will be sharing The Technology Tail, A Digital Footprint Story and tying it into our second library rotation focusing on digital citizenship.  

As we talked and laughed on the phone, sharing stories of children, I became even more excited about Julia's books and her visit.  She is truly making a difference with the books she writes, the words she shares and the visits she makes to schools and communities throughout the year. 

We are very lucky to share Julia's stories in our library and can't wait to have her visit our community too. 

You will find Julia's website here, along with links to her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.