20 Best Books about Resilience for Kids and Teens

Resilience Books

“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”

Bram Stoker, Dracula

It’s a great quote about resilience, isn’t it? Unfortunately, too many kids are losing their resilience skills. Sure, we could sit here all day and point fingers are parents, schools and society. All three have a role. But, I’m not going to tell anyone how to parent their child. Does your child struggle with resilience? How do you know if they lack resilience skills? And, most importantly, what can you do?

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Definition of Resilience

1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

That is the definition of resilience. Think of the average toddler, who freaks out when you give them their drink in the green cup instead of the blue cup. This is how kids first learn to deal with disappointment and bounce back. It’s also why, even in the moment it’s easier to just give them the blue cup, it’s probably more valuable for the long run to make it a teachable moment.

When parents fix things instead of teaching them how to deal with disappointment, it can hinder resilience skills.

However, this is not to say that all kids who lack resilience skills have bad parents. Or, that for a real trauma or disappointment, that they should just “buck up and shake it off.” That’s not helpful either. There are a lot of factors that go into resilience, and our kids may struggle a bit more due to learning differences.

My point is, first, parenting is hard. But also that kids do need to learn to deal with life’s disappointments.

Kennett Ginsburg (one of his books in on the list) has written about this, and he defines resilience into 7cs.

7 Cs of Resilience

• Competence
• Confidence
• Connection
• Character
• Contribution
• Coping
• Control

Resilience at School

If a child lacks resilience skills, this may affect them at school. You may want to consider adding a Social-Emotional IEP goal, or SEL. You can find some ideas in that link.

For more information about these concepts of resilience and more in the resilience books below. The first list is books that a child would read, or that you would read to a child. The second list is resilience books for teens.

The last list is parenting books about resilience. Or, books that a parent would purchase and read. And then implement the ideas at home.

Resilience Books for Kids

Resilience Books for Teens

Resilience Parenting Books

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