New stuff: Too Shy for Show-and-Tell

Two weeks ago I told you about Henry Helps (and Henry's inspiration). This week, I'd love to share another book I wrote this season: Too Shy for Show-and-Tell.

Okay. Raise your hand if you were or are painfully shy. Yep, that's me. Once I warm up to people I'm okay, but I have a hard time feeling comfortable with new people—even people I really like. And that's been true since I was a little kid. So when I was asked to come up with a great preK topic for our Little Boost series, feeling shy was one of the first things I thought of.

Now, there's nothing wrong with being shy, or with being an introvert. Hopefully everyone knows that. Shyness is natural. But in our society, it's definitely not rewarded. And oftentimes it can keep us, as Morrissey sang, from "doing all the things in life that you want to." So one important lesson that kids need to learn is how to put aside shyness in order to make friends, share feelings, and—as Sam the giraffe learns in this book—participate in show-and-tell and let his classmates get to know him.

The big joy of this book was seeing the words brought to life. Jennifer Bell, the illustrator, did such an amazing job—and in fact, she's already hard at work on my next book.

I hope you enjoy little Sam-the-giraffe as much as I do.