Using Books to Help Raise Kind Kids

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On:

A Message from Jenny Phillips

In a world that is largely self-centered and incredibly self-absorbed, it is definitely possible to raise kind and selfless children, but I believe it takes intentional efforts. One powerful way to do this is through giving your children the right books to read.  Keep reading for my top three book recommendations that encourage kindness.

Find more ways to foster kindness in children in this short video on The Good and the Beautiful YouTube channel.

Every good book your child reads plants seeds, and those seeds begin to grow, especially if nourished by more of those kinds of books.

When children read books in which characters are disrespectful and self-absorbed, it undoubtedly affects them negatively. And if they have a steady diet of these kinds of books, their characters will fundamentally be shaped in unfavorable ways. Children absolutely model what they see in books.

But it’s not about just keeping the harmful books away from children.

I have found it effective to not just help my family avoid books and media that are violent or disrespectful, but to teach them to personally understand, discern, and desire this for their own lives. I do this in a few ways. The homeschool curriculum we use, The Good and the Beautiful, teaches kids in their language arts courses to understand how books and media impact them. Children learn to love and choose for themselves books that uplift and inspire. I also talk to them often about the books I am reading and how they impact me. And I read good books to my kids and have discussions with them about what we are reading.

Here are some of my favorite read-aloud books for families that encourage kindness:

Here are some of my top recommendations for personal reading books for teenagers that encourage kindness:

The Good and the Beautiful is passionate about helping families and children return to a love of literature that is wholesome and worthy. There is an absolutely beautiful world of books out there—old and new—that teach respect, kindness, and honesty through wonderfully written, engaging, and inspiring stories. When you immerse your children in this kind of literature, over time you will see your children become more kind, more respectful, and more positive.

  • The Good and the Beautiful Book List — A free searchable, downloadable list of book recommendations.

    Go to The Good and Beautiful Book List for a free searchable list of more than 1,000 books for children preschool through high school.

  • The Good and the Beautiful Bookshop

    Shop at The Good and the Beautiful Bookshop to purchase parent approved books that are uplifting and character building.

  • Our Language Arts courses for preschool through high school. These full-year, easy to teach courses contain everything needed to teach reading, comprehension, spelling, writing, grammar, geography, art appreciation, and so much more!

You may also like . . .

  • The Best 12 Read Alouds for Younger Children Blog | The Good and The Beautiful
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Join the Discussion

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47 comments

Heather Venator

I agree that the quality of the content we and our kids consume is of high importance. Especially for avid readers it can have a huge effect on our character, for good or bad.

Elissa Wang

Thank you for the recommendations. I sometimes have a hard time choosing the books that raise kind kids. As someone who spent a lot of my time in a culture that doesn’t respect, I became a very petty person and thrived on people doing petty things to others, which is so hard to unlearn. I am grateful for this blog post and love being able to read them for myself and my kid!

Marina Nozdrin

We absolutely love TGTB books, especially ones with series.

Heather Sauret

Fostering a love for reading in my kids has been so important in our homeschool journey.

Sayuri Lewis

Love using books to teach. But even more importantly showing child good books that don’t have the junk is better. One of my favorite things about using you guys. Is I don’t have to worry about the books.

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