Little Athletes with Big Dreams

I am always ridiculously excited about the Olympics and this year is no exception. I will be cheering on Katie Ledecky and Phoebe Bacon, two alumnae from my high school who made the swim team! Growing up, I loved swimming, riding, and figure skating on weekends. I was never a great student athlete (and was frankly downright terrible in soccer!) but I enjoyed the camaraderie of team sports in school, especially track and field.

Speaking of track, when the world met Sha'Carri Richardson during Olympic trials this month, there was no mistake: she is already a record-breaking legend. In an interview about her stunning performance, she said "I just want the world to know that I'm That Girl." Hearing that, we knew that we needed a Little Friday Reads book shelf to encourage young athletes!

Our Little Athletes with Big Dreams book shelf compliments our Bold and Bookish Game, Set, Match shelf for high school and adult readers. Our sports-related shelves are curated by one of my best friends from high school who was a star tennis player for our school. Is there a book we should add and promote on our Little Friday Reads Instagram? Send your suggestions to Pixie@LittleFridayReads.com!

Celebrating AAPI Heritage

If you are following us on Instagram, then you know we are very excited about AAPI Heritage Month! This year, it feels incredibly important - pressing even - to uplift the voices of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Over the past year, we have all witnessed a rise in hate crimes and hateful behavior against Asian Americans. Just this weekend, I learned about a disturbing incident not far from me. Police in Arlington, VA are asking the public to help them identify a man who was caught on camera fleeing a restaurant after physically attacking an Asian employee and hurling an anti-Asian slur.

How do we end hatred? That is a question we have grappled with in the U.S. for generations. Last year’s massive protests for George Floyd reignited the conversation. Have we found an answer? We all know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” I see that quote in feel-good social media posts every MLK Day and it seems to be a favorite among U.S. politicians, but what steps do we need to take to create a love strong enough to drive out centuries of hate? Where does that bright light come from?

To learn more, let’s dig deeper into Dr. King’s book Strength to Love. In it, he also wrote, “One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.” To me, this means that we can project “love and light” from the heart, but to truly drive out darkness we have to be educated as well. Social media campaigns like #StopAAPIHate can be impactful because awareness is important, but we have to also be vulnerable enough to personally acknowledge what we do not know and then choose to learn (and in some cases, unlearn) and grow.

As a writer and avid reader, I believe in the power of books and I truly believe that Representation Matters. We have to start with the littlest Little Friday Readers, ensuring they see kids of all backgrounds. And, we have to address the diversity gaps in children’s literature. While we advocate for more inclusion in publishing, we will uplift the voices of Asians and Pacific Islanders on our Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage bookshelf (which you can find on our Little Friday Reads Bookshop). Is there a book we should add and promote on our Little Friday Reads Instagram? Send your suggestions to Pixie@LittleFridayReads.com!

Little Friday Keys

With the help of a friend who is a fantastic child psychologist, I created Little Friday Keys: a list of qualities, skills, and traits that I will look for when selecting Little Friday Reads features. The list of keys is certainly not meant to represent every attribute (that would be a tome!) and we favored options that address core behaviors. The list will be updated over time, as needed. Right now, we have selected twenty terrific keys that work beautifully alone and together. I introduce them below, through five unforgettable characters that exemplify the heart of the keys’ intentions. Under those examples, I list them alphabetically, with definitions.

Winner of the Newberry Medal, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry takes place in Mississippi during the worst part of the Great Depression. During a tumultuous and eventful year, nine-year-old Cassie Logan learns why her family fights to maintain control of their land as they are faced with the terrors of night riders and vigilantes, reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan, and despicable social injustice.

Keys: Through Cassie’s narration, readers learn more about courage, civility, respect, and honesty.

In The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, readers meet Lucy, a sixth grader with great expectations for an epic school year. But before she can conquer the year, she finds out that her beloved grandmother’s sister, Yi Po, is coming to visit for several months and will be sharing a room with her. On top of a new roommate, she’s facing bullies who don’t want her to be the star of her school’s basketball team and a know-it-all, Talent Chang, at Chinese school. Will Lucy’s year be ruined?

Keys: Lucy’s warm story of silver linings is filled with humor and through her lens we learn about collaboration, friendship, and curiosity.

When Stars are Scattered is a beautiful graphic novel about childhood in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Omar Mohamed, a former Somali refugee, told his true story to Victoria Jamieson, the award-winning creator of Roller Girl. Without their parents, Omar has to take on the adult-sized task of caring for his younger brother Hassan, who is nonverbal and does not have access to medical care. Readers get a glimpse of how humanitarian crises impact children’s daily lives, choices, and opportunities.

Keys: Through Omar’s heartfelt story and journey, we can learn more about forgiveness, empathy, gratitude, and compassion.

True Grit is a classic period piece set in 1873. When Tom Chaney kills Mattie Ross’s father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, she is determined to get justice. At only fourteen-years-old, she enlists the help of Rooster Cogburn, a surly U.S. Marshal who is not initially keen to work with a young girl, to aid in her pursuit. Throughout their ordeals tracking Tom Chaney, Mattie has unwavering faith that they will succeed.

Keys: Mattie’s heroic adventure can teach us about adaptability, assertiveness, and resilience, along with the importance of having problem solving skills.

In Rainbow Weaver, readers meet Ixchel, a young Mayan girl in Guatemala. She wants to become a weaver like the women in her family, but they cannot teach her using the precious threads needed for the pieces they sell at the market. Those works of art are sold to pay for Ixchel’s school and books. Ixchel looks for other options and finds a solution that serves two purposes. By using colorful plastic bags, she can learn how to weave and get rid of plastic waste in the village.

Keys: With perseverance, patience, and humility, in an act of kindness, Ixchel finds a solution to her challenge.

Alphabetical List of Little Friday Keys with Definitions

Adaptability - capable of being or becoming adapted.

Assertiveness - disposed to or characterized by bold or confident statements and behavior.

Civility - a polite act or expression.

Collaboration - the work and activity of a number of persons who individually contribute toward the efficiency of the whole.

Compassion - sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

Courage - mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

Curiosity - desire to know.

Empathy - the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.

Forgiveness - the act of forgiving; release from the guilt or penalty of an offense.

Friendship - the state of being friends; the quality or state of being friendly.

Gratitude - the state of being grateful; thankfulness; acknowledgment of having received something good from another.

Honesty - adherence to the facts; fairness and straightforwardness of conduct.

Humility - freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble.

Humor - the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous : the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are funny.

Kindness - the quality of state of being kind; an act of kind assistance.

Patience - the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient; the capacity to endure what is difficult or disagreeable without complaining.

Perseverance - continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition; the action or condition or an instance of persevering. While slightly different, when it is more appropriate, we may use persistence instead.

Problem Solving - the process or act of finding a solution to a problem.

Resilience - an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Respect - an act of giving particular attention; to consider worthy of high regard; to refrain from interfering with.

Our Bookshop’s Shelves

The Little Friday Reads Bookshop is up and running! Bookshop supports independent booksellers and as an affiliate, Little Friday Reads will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

As I create new shelves on Bookshop, I will update this list. Have suggestions? Please email Pixie@LittleFridayReads.com! Right now, you can find books under these categories:

Featured Little Friday Keys

Deep Valley & Other Friendship Stories

Nancy Drew & Daring Detective Tales

The Final Frontier: Adventures in Space

Quimby’s Quips & Other Humorous Books 

Arthurian Classics & Merlin’s Modern Twists

Of Cabbages & Kings: The Best of Nonsense

Under the Sea: Merpeople & Ocean Tales

Lions, Tigers & Bears: Epic Animal Sagas

Somebunny Wants to Read With You

Let’s Face the Music and Dance

Game, Set, Match: Little Readers & Big Leagues

Little Views of Big World Events

Great Expectations: Girl Friday Heroes

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage

Celebrating Black History and Heritage

Celebrating Earth Day Every Day

Celebrating Pride Month Every Month

All About Passover

All About Christmas and Easter

All About Ramadan

For a World of Good

Thank you for visiting Little Friday Reads, a new Girl Friday initiative for children nursery through grade 8. I created Little Friday Reads because I believe that books can help develop courage, compassion, and a host of other incredible qualities and traits. Do you remember the stories that shaped your childhood? Are there any books that were a source of inspiration, taught you something unexpected, or broadened your personal worldview? My list of life-changing childhood books would definitely include the Betsy, Tacy, Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Children of the River by Linda Crew, The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton, and The Tillerson Cycle by Cynthia Voight. Through those stories, I learned about developing lasting friendships, persevering through unimaginable struggles, and the magic of imagination.

In March 2020, I launched Girl Friday with a simple idea: awareness impels to action. For the past year, on Instagram and through my weekly newsletter, The Friday Brief, I have been sharing pressing challenges around the world, the organizations working on those issues, and how we can work together to help solve the problem. To name just a few, I have covered ending child labor in the chocolate industry, protecting farmworkers’ rights, and reevaluating the use of solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system. Since that first launch day, I have learned several lessons, namely that it is sometimes hard for adults to connect with issues that feel overwhelming, beyond their reach, or outside of their communities. Friends have asked me, “why are you posting about The Big Cat Public Safety Act? Does it really matter that Americans personally own a bizarre number of Tigers?” Yes, it actually does matter (see why here). And, I have been met with, “but what can we really do about a war happening in another country? Can we honestly help?” Yes, we definitely can (see how here). So, I wondered: how can I get adults to see that our local, national, and global challenges are related, important, and impact each other? Then, I remembered my wide-eyed younger self and instantly knew the answer. Start with children.

From there, I started building Little Friday Reads, a companion to Girl Friday’s Bold and Bookish club, for children in nursery through grade 8. For Bold and Bookish club members, I pick a book (all genres are welcome!) about a topic I think the Girl Friday community might like to explore further. We have read books about refugees’ journeys to safety (The Beekeeper of Aleppo), tackling government corruption (It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of Kenyan Whistle-Blower), injustice in the American South (The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist), and so much more. Similar to Bold and Bookish, I will be selecting Little Friday Reads books that help children explore the world around them. I will also host book giveaways, so be sure to follow Little Friday Reads on Instagram! All Little Friday Reads selections, unless otherwise unavailable, will be featured on Bookshop, which supports independent booksellers. As an affiliate, Little Friday Reads will receive a small commission if you click through to make a purchase.