This Is Me - by Helena Harastova (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Discover Self-Acceptance, Understanding, Individuality and Growth Through Ten Unique Stories.

Meet ten amazing kids, each with their own unique personality and incredible strengths! This engaging book uses delightful stories to explore important feelings and traits, helping young readers understand themselves and others better. From Olivia's courage to Tina's thoughtfulness and Daniel's carefulness, you'll see how everyone's different qualities make the world a richer place. These stories spark important conversations about being yourself, understanding your emotions, and celebrating what makes everyone special!

• Explore Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Engaging stories help kids understand feelings, empathy, and self-awareness.


• Meet Ten Unique Characters: Discover diverse personalities and learn about traits like hastiness, bravery, oversensitivity, unruliness, energetic, thoughtfulness, talkative, perseverance, shyness, argumentative, communicative, stubbornness, perceptiveness, and more!


• Celebrate Individuality: Encourages kids to embrace their own unique qualities and appreciate the differences in others.


• Build Self-Acceptance and Confidence: Helps young readers recognize their own strengths and feel good about who they are.


• Foster Empathy and Understanding: Promotes kindness and appreciation for the diverse ways people think and feel.


• Great for Ages 6-9: Relatable stories and characters make SEL concepts accessible and engaging for young readers.


• Spark Meaningful Conversations: Ideal for discussions at home, in the classroom, or in libraries about identity and acceptance.


• Promotes Personal Growth: Encourages self-reflection and a positive understanding of oneself and others.

For over 75 years, Albatros Media has been crafting original and innovative children's books that are both playful and educational, fostering curiosity and a thirst for knowledge in young minds. We deliver the highest quality children's books from novelty, picture, pop-up, and how-to books, to non-fiction, and fairy tale books.

Review Quotes

"PreS-Gr 3-Paired concepts such as "hasty and brave" or "oversensitive and perceptive" are explored through illustrations that effectively capture the characteristics along with multiple examples of children who demonstrate these personality traits. Using supportive language, the author explores the ¬concepts and offers ways for children to handle this self-knowledge to improve in areas that might cause them distress. When discussing shyness, Harastová provides five practical tips to overcome shyness while also affirming that shy people "are the unsung heroes of everyday life, because they face challenging situations and manage to deal with them." The presentation is extremely well done and this title, while too long to read in a single sitting, will be immensely useful for classroom SEL instruction and other arenas where children are learning about what makes themselves, and others, unique. A variety of tips and support are provided, which will be appreciated by children and adults alike. VERDICT Celebrating the diversity of the human experience in language through well-illustrated examples, this title provides a plethora of opportunities for discussion as adults try to help young people navigate the human experience and celebrate their uniqueness." --John Scott, School Library Journal, Starred Review

"I thought this was a very insightful book. It goes through essentially the same characteristic, ability or emotion can be done in a good or bad manner. For example, while being talkative can be perceived negatively, being communicative is important. These aren't necessarily negative, but can cause negative situtations to arise. Illustrations are gentle with muted colors and not abrassive at all, and I think this would be great to discuss things with your child should one of the listed be affecting a child's life." --Sara Reiser, Librarian

About the Author

Helena Harastova is a writer, translator, and mother. She graduated in Dramaturgy from the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts, having previously worked for the National Theatre in Brno, Czech Republic. Her most unusual pastime is proofreading texts for errors in spelling, grammar, and style.

Ana Kobern is a children's book illustrator who is passionate about watercolor and digital hand-drawn art. As a mother of two and a lover of exploration, sports, dance, and music, she creates engaging books for young readers that celebrate the beauty and diversity of the world while helping them understand their feelings. Her illustrations feature vibrant color palettes, detailed elements, and charming characters, often reflecting real-life experiences. She lives in a small town in Ukraine.