Hope Reading

There are many excellent books about hope that you can bring into your classroom! We’ve compiled some of our favourites with links to local bookstores to help you locate them, including a full list of recommendations for both teachers and students below. You may also want to check out our collection of read-alongs on the Hope Videos page.

TEACHER READING LIST (UPDATED APRIL 2021):

Teachers are fundamentally important supports and role models for students. They play a central role in fostering healthy school communities and learning environments that are responsive to students’ developmental needs. Alberta’s Teacher Quality Standards point to teachers’ role in responding to the emotional and mental health needs of students. Hope offers a way of supporting the wellbeing of teachers and the wellbeing of the students with whom they work.

Hope is a multifaceted and complex construct with decades of research evidence underscoring its importance to health and wellbeing for children, youth, and adults. There are many definitions of hope, but Jevne & Edey concisely describe hope as the ability to imagine a future in which one wishes to participate.

The following readings on hope have been recommended by members of the SHARP-SMH team.

Title	Author
Humankind: A Hopeful History	Bregman, Rutger
Man’s Search for Meaning	Frankl, Viktor
Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto	Gannon, Kevin M.
Understanding Other-Oriented Hope: An Integral Concept Within Hope Studies	Howell, Andrew J. & Larsen, Denise J.
Finding Hope: Ways of seeing life in a brighter light	Jevne, Ronna Fay & Miller, James E.
Teaching to Diversity: The Three-Block Model of Universal Design for Learning	Katz, Jennifer
Circle Time for Emotional Literacy	Roffey, Sue
Making Hope Happen: Create the Future You Want for Yourself and Others	Shane Lopez

CLASS READING LIST (UPDATED APRIL 2021):

Title	Author	Reading Level
Dream	Bosak, Susan	Grades K-3
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes	Coerr, Eleanor	Grades 3-4
A Flicker of Hope	Cook, Julia	Grades 3-6
Feathers	Cummings, Phil	Grades K-3
Elijah of Buxton	Curtis, Christopher Paul	Grades 4-7
Iqbal	D’Adamo, Francesco	Grades 7-9
The Promise	Davies, Nicola	Grades K-4
If Kids Ran The World	Dillon, Leo	Grades K-2
The Breadwinnder Trilogy	Eillis, Deborah	Grades 2-12
A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope	Foreman, Michale	Grades K-3
Questions Asked	Gaardner, Jostein	Grades K-2
The First Forest	Gile, John	Grades 1-2
Flush	Hiasson, Carl	Grades 7-12
Invitation to the Game	Hughes, Monica	Grades 9-12
The Harmonica	Johnston, Tony	Grades 2-5
Slacker	Korman, Gordon	Grades 6-8
Hope is the Thing With Feathers	Kuchler, Bonnie Louise	All Grades
Giant Steps to Change the World	Lee, Spike (and Tonya Lewis Lee)	Grades K-4
The Invisible Boy	Ludwig, Trudy	Grades K-2
If You Hold a Seed	MacKay, Elly	Grades K-2
Shawdowchasers	MacKay, Elly	Grades K-2
The Girl Who Owned a City	Nelson, O.T.	Grades 3-8
Beautiful Hands	Otoshi, Kathryn	Grades K-2
Wonder	Palacco, R. J.	Grades 5-7
Freak the Mighty	Philman, Rodbrick	Grades 7-12
When I Grow Up I Will Win The Nobel Peace Prize	Pin, Isabel	Grades K-2
Thank you, Mr. Falker	Polacco, Patricia	Grades 3-5
The Ninth Ward	Rhodes, Jewell Parker	Grades 6-8
The Red Tree	Tan, Shaun	Grades 4-8
Hope is an Open Heart	Thompson, Lauren	Grades 1-4
Terry Fox: A Story of Hope	Trottier, Maxine	Grades 2-4
The Faithful Elephants	Tsuchya, Yukio	Grades 4-7
Brothers in Hope	Williams, Mary	Grades 3-5
What Do You Do With a Problem?	Yamada, Kobi	Grade 1
What Do You Do With an Idea?	Yamada, Kobi (and Mae Besom)	Grade 1
Malala’s Magic Pencil	Yousafzai, Malala (and Kerascoët)	Grades K-3