Where the ideas come from

The stories are silly on purpose. The ideas underneath them are not.

Every power Noah and Ella practice comes from well-established research on how children learn to handle setbacks, big feelings, and the everyday mistakes of growing up. Here is the idea behind each chapter and a few good books on each, exactly as listed in the free Parent & Teacher Guide. You do not need any of them to use the stories. They are simply where the thinking comes from.

Introduction & Chapter 1 · Setbacks happen to everyone; what matters is what you do next

• Kenneth R. Ginsburg and Martha M. Jablow, Building Resilience in Children and Teens, 4th ed. (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2020)
• Michele Borba, Thrivers (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2021)

Chapter 2 · Magic Pause: naming and calming big feelings

• Marc Brackett, Permission to Feel (Celadon Books, 2019)
• Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Yes Brain (Bantam Books, 2018)
• Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child (Delacorte Press, 2011). Source of the "name it to tame it" idea.

Chapter 3 · Oops-and-Adjust: mistakes are clues, not verdicts

• Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, updated ed. (Ballantine Books, 2016)
• Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect (Currency, 2019)

Chapter 4 · Tiny Brave Step: courage in small steps

• Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016)
• BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019)

Chapter 5 · Plan B Power: flexibility when a plan falls apart

• Ross W. Greene, Raising Human Beings (Scribner, 2016)
• William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, The Self-Driven Child (Viking, 2018)

Chapter 6 · The Power of Yet: growth mindset and the inner critic

• Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, updated ed. (Ballantine Books, 2016). Home of "the power of yet."
• Kristin Neff, Fierce Self-Compassion (Harper Wave, 2021)

Chapter 7 · Reset Button: reframing a bad day and finding the good

• David D. Burns, Feeling Great (PESI Publishing, 2020). On the "bad-day glasses" (cognitive distortions).
• Robert A. Emmons, The Little Book of Gratitude (Gaia, 2016). On "find one good thing" (gratitude).

Chapter 8 · Fixing It: repairing a friendship

• Eileen Kennedy-Moore and Christine McLaughlin, Growing Friendships (Beyond Words / Simon & Schuster, 2017)
• Harriet Lerner, Why Won't You Apologize? (Touchstone, 2017)

Chapter 9 · What Did It Teach Me?: growth from setbacks

• Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016)
• Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, Option B (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017)

Chapter 10 · Your Bounce-Back Toolkit: putting the nine powers together

• This chapter gathers the tools; the resilience books above (Ginsburg and Jablow; Borba) speak to using them together.

For grown-ups, more broadly

• Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Power of Showing Up (Ballantine Books, 2020)

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