If you saw my post from Tuesday of this week, then you already know that our Family Focus Trait for May is honesty! And, you’ve already seen the two books that we used for our honesty kickoff. In that post, I promised a more in-depth look at both, because both are absolutely worth reading, so I’ve got that information for you today. Read on to see why our whole family loves both The Empty Pot by Demi and Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin!
The Empty Pot by Demi
If you’re only going to read one book on our honesty booklist, then please make The Empty Pot be your top choice! Beautifully illustrated AND told, it’s absolutely worth the investment to own for your classroom or home library.
The Empty Pot is the story of Ping, a young Chinese boy who loves flowers. In fact, everyone in the kingdom loves flowers, but no one more than the Emperor himself. In fact, the Emperor loves flowers so much that when it comes time to choose his successor to the throne, he decides “to let the flowers choose” and have a flower-growing contest! The child who can “show their best in a year’s time” will be the successor! Of course, this is right up Ping’s alley — he knows he can win! But, try as he might, he just cannot get his flower to grow. After a year, Ping has only an empty pot to show for his efforts, which his father reassures him is good enough since he did his best. I won’t give away the ending, but let’s just say that courage and honesty win out!
Want to buy The Empty Pot? Use the affiliate links below to purchase!
Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin
While The Empty Pot is my favorite of the books on our honesty booklist, Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie is definitely my girls’ favorite. And you know what? I’m okay with that, because Rankin has done an amazing job helping children feel the roller coaster of emotions they might ride, starting the moment the lie slips from their lips and ending when the truth has been told and apologies and forgiveness given.
Ruthie loves tiny things (my girls love to point out her teeny tiny collectibles throughout the book!). It matters not what the object is — if it is teeny tiny, Ruthie will love it! So when Ruthie finds a teeny tiny camera on the playground at school, she quickly grabs it, starts to play with it… and claims it as her own. She’s just thrilled with her find until she uses it to take a picture of Martin and realizes that the camera belongs to Martin! When Martin tells the teacher that it’s his camera that he got for his birthday, Ruthie responds that in fact, it’s HER camera that she got for HER birthday! For the rest of the day, Ruthie’s stomach “flip-flopped.” She can’t concentrate, she’s not hungry, and she doesn’t want to talk to anyone. Just before bed, she finally breaks down and confesses her lie to her parents. While I love the range of emotions that we feel through Ruthie, my favorite part of this book is her parents’ reaction: “It’s going to be okay. You made a mistake, and tomorrow you can fix it.” You can fix it! Such a great reminder to all of us parents that our children can indeed, and should indeed, fix their own problems. You’ll have to read to see how it all works out, but I’m sure you won’t be shocked to know that it’s a happy ending.
Want to buy Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie? Use the affiliate links below to purchase!
If you liked these books, be sure to check out the rest of our honesty booklist, publishing early next week, and my post about how we kicked off our Family Focus of honesty for May!
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