Heroes for every day

Alison Morris of PW's Shelf Talker blog recently asked writers and publishers to think about creating books in which characters perform community service. A customer had requested such a book. She and her 5th grader were about to start volunteering, and they wanted books to read about other kids doing good work. Alison and her colleagues found a great book to recommend, but perhaps if they'd been aware of our We Are Heroes series, she'd have recommended them, too!

We've talked about the We Are Heroes series before on this blog, but now that school is back in session it's a great time to remind our loyal readers about this set of books. One of Capstone Publishers' owners, Jim Coughlan, sent out a mandate to his staff a while ago: create books in which kids are everyday heroes, doing work that helps others.

Jim's children participated in the Kids Against Hunger (KAH) organization, a group that packages a nutritious meal that can be sent to starving children. (Read about two SAB staffers helping at a school working with KAH here.) That inspired us at SAB to create the first book in We Are Heroes, Kids Against Hunger. Five other books followed, about normal, run-of-the mill kids doing such things as taking care of animals in the aftermath of a storm, participating in a bike ride to help a homeless shelter, building a house with Habitat for Humanity, and more.

We wanted to show readers that some heroes are made by doing good to help others. Oh, and we wanted to tell some good stories, too!

Check out all six of the We Are Heroes books here.