Report on Children's Books for Social and Emotional Skill Development

This report presents a review of two children's books, "Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall and "The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes" by Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett, focusing on their potential to foster social and emotional skills in young children. The report analyzes each book based on its ability to promote specific emotional developments, such as combating fear, building self-confidence, and understanding that perfection is unattainable. "Jabari Jumps" is recommended for its ability to help children develop a love for extracurricular activities and courage. "The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes" is recommended for teaching children about embracing imperfections. The review includes reasons for adopting the books, previews of the content, and justifications linking the stories to key social and emotional development concepts like resilience, risk-averse practices, and self-regulation, supported by references from course materials. Both books are evaluated using a book evaluation form that highlights their positive and negative features, and the report concludes with a list of references in APA format.

Running Head: SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author Note

1SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
The purpose of this study is to review two books written for children. The first book is
Jabari jumps written by Gaia Cornwall. Another book is The Girl who never made mistakes by
Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett.
Reasons for Adopting (Book 1):
Firstly, this book will help a child to develop love for extra-curricular activities like
swimming will be developed. Secondly, children will learn to combat fear by reading this story
book. Thirdly, they will be able to inculcate self-confidence (Jabari Jumps ,2019).
Previewing Content:
The story revolves round the swimming practice of a little boy Jabari. Jabari, after the
competition of his swimming training and passing relevant tests, keen to examine his proficiency
by jumping up from the diving board, which was set at a very high distance. Though he was no
scared on the first day, still he decided not to jump, as he realized that he forgot to do stretch.
The next day he was able to remove the little fear he had insider the corner of by following the
valuable tip of his dad and jump from the swim board and swam like a proficient swimmer
(Jabari Jumps, 2019).
What the child will learn (Book 1):
In this story, the author has used onomatopoeia like “splash” and “whoosh” to depict the
sound of jumping as well as diving which will evoke a child’s interest for extra-curricular
activities like swimming. Children will inculcate positive and enthusiastic attitude towards
learning too (Jabari Jumps, 2019).

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Justify:
Connections between the Story and Social, Emotional Development of Child
(Book 1):
This story fosters emotional development like fighting back fear and inculcating courage
and confidence and love and attachment for family. The evidences of which can be found from
Jabari’s style of fighting with his fear of jumping. Jabari squeezed back his father’s hand when
his father squeezed his hand in order to assure Jabari that his father is with him. Jabari followed
his father’s tips to combat his fear. This story also assists children to grow qualities, which will
let them withstand a lot of negative impacts of adversity, such as resilience and risk-averse
practices (edweek.org, 2019).
Reasons for Adopting (Book 2):
This book Firstly, this book will help a child to realize a person cannot be perfect all the
time. Secondly, this story can make children realize being imperfect can make life full of fun.
Thirdly, this story will show children and their parents how society’s expectation of being
perfect can burden a child with a mental pressure and devoid him or her from all the enjoyments
of life (YouTube, 2019).
Previewing Content:
The content of the story revolves round the life of a girl Beatrice who was popular for not
making any mistakes. One day she accidentally made a big mistake, in front of the audience,
while performing juggling on stage, this breaks her image of being perfect all the time, and

3SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
relieved her from the mental pressure of making no mistakes, also let her enjoy her life with
carefree attitude.
What the child will learn (Book 2):
The child will learn to do work systematically without bearing the pressure of being
perfect all the time, as a person cannot avoid coincidences or impacts of negative situations in
life. Again, the child will also learn to enjoy life after reading this story (YouTube, 2019).
Justify:
Connections between the Story and Social, Emotional Development of Child (Book
2):
This story fosters emotional development of a child by teaching her to enjoy life without
taking any pressure of being perfect a child will be recognized by his or her own identity and will
experiment with life, by taking the risk of making mistakes and rectifying it. The evidences of
which can be found in Beatrice’s mistake in front of the audience, her laughter in front of the
audience, which was infectious and her attempts to be imperfect to have the real taste of
childhood. Hence, this story also assists children to grow qualities, which will let them withstand
a lot of negative impacts of adversity. This means that the children will learn resilience. This
story will also teach a child to cope with risky situations in life (edweek.org, 2019).

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Book Evaluation Form (book1):
Book Title: Jabari Jumps
Author: Gaia Cornwall
Publisher and Date: Candlewick (May 9, 2017)
Reasons for Inclusion:
 Written for children of age 4 – 8 years
 Positive features: learn to combat fear and love for learning extra-curricular activities like
swimming.
 Negative features: this story may also make a child overconfident.
 The story should be recommended as it will evoke the love for learning and
experimenting within a child.
Book Evaluation Form (book2):
Book Title: The Girl who never made mistakes
Author: Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett
Publisher and Date: Publisher Sourcebooks, Inc, 04 Nov 2011
Reasons for Inclusion:
 Written for children of age 8 – 10 years

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 The child will learn to do work systematically without bearing the pressure of being
perfect all the time.
 It is recommended because it will teach a child to balance between being perfect and
enjoying life.

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References
edweek.org, L. (2019). Social-Emotional Programs Target Students' Long-Term Behavior.
Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/10/14/cm_socialemotional.html?
tkn=MXCCeAZMEdlKS6ceOyHT2lD%2FccAH3LXGsqVm&cmp=clp-sb-ascd.
Jabari Jumps. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXTk9jmnDec
YouTube. (2019). The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQG4vFGd6eU