🧸 What Children's Literature Teaches us about Communications and Community
Happy International Children’s Book Day: 12 Inspiring Stories
From fairy tales to modern movements, children’s books teach important lessons in short stories with beautiful illustrations. As a genre today, it is known for sparking creativity, teaching empathy and celebrating differences.
Today is a day to celebrate these stories — it’s International Children’s Book Day, a holiday started in 1967 in honor of the father of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen who made many of these classic stories famous with The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes. To celebrate the movement he sparked, his birthday, April 2nd, was declared a holiday in 1967. Once upon a time, Andersen, said:
Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.
With this in mind, there are many lessons we can learn from children’s books, even as adults, about the ways we communicate and connect at work. Today, you can even visit the scenes of children’s books in real life at this first-ever newly opened Museum. I asked several leaders featured on The Switchboard to share their favorite children’s books and what they’ve discovered from them. Here are the books we chose:
🪨🍜 Stone Soup
🕷️ Fibbed
🧸 Corduroy
🪨🍜 Stone Soup by Ann McGovern | Chosen by: Julia Levy
This story begins with a hungry peddler seeking a meal. He asks for food from an older woman who turns him away from her home instantly, saying she has no food. But, the peddler devises a creative plan: he picks up a stone on the side of the road, and returns to ask if the woman could spare some water for him to make soup from a stone. Intrigued, she lets him into her kitchen.
As the water boils, the peddler suggests the soup would taste even better if one vegetable was added, then another and another. Eventually, onions, carrots and potatoes, appear from the woman’s garden — even though she claimed to not have food. Once the soup is ready, they sit and enjoy a meal together. The woman marvels at their culinary creation — “soup from a stone, fancy that,” she proclaims! It becomes the iconic line of this classic fable because the reader knows what the soup is truly made from, and it has nothing to do with that stone.
📘 Lessons Learned: While people can be wary of the stranger, there’s a positive connection that’s sparked when we invite people to have a seat at our table and help others in need. It’s important to share with your community and enjoy a unique experience together. And if you believe in a whacky idea enough, others will join you. It’s a story about the power of relationships, kindness and a dash of imagination. 🧹Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish | Chosen by: Tracy Van Grack
A story designed to teach young people how to distinguish between literal and figurative language is, at its core, a book about effective communication. Amelia Bedelia’s trials force readers to confront the challenges of understanding and being understood, introducing concepts all communicators have to consider:
📘 Lessons Learned: Who is your target audience? What is the context surrounding your message? And how might your message be interpreted by different people? As the series progresses, Amelia’s employers learn to clarify their messages so that tasks are completed correctly AND they get Amelia’s error-erasing pie.🐰The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld | Chosen by: Farrah Mitra
Taylor builds an amazing castle from blocks that ends up destroyed. Very quickly, all the animals jump in offering suggestions, from getting angry (the Bear) to laughing about it (the Hyena, of course) but none of that is what Taylor needs.
Eventually, the Rabbit listens as Taylor talks, shouts, and remembers how good the castle was and eventually even talks about being ready to build again. Taylor just needed someone to just listen — it's hard to move forward before we feel heard.
📘 Lessons Learned: Being a great teammate or community member is about knowing how to best support one another and knowing each other's needs. If you don't know, you can always ask. In the workplace this could look like asking: do you want me to listen, coach, or advise? 🚧 Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker | Chosen by: Tracey Pavlishin
More than the book's theme appealing to my sons, I wanted to support a local author (Chicago). This book quickly became their favorite book to read before bed because the sweet rhyming texts reminded them that we all need to rest - even the busiest and biggest construction trucks.
📘 Lessons Learned: This book taught my children (and reminded me) are that everyone's role may be different, but each one is equally important. And the value of resting. We all need to rest in order to be our best selves. What a powerful reminder and delightful way to end our day - pausing to recognize everyone for their contributions and encouraging rest so we are ready for another great day ahead. 🦋 Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus | Chosen by: Gorick Ng
It’s about the journey of a caterpillar who realizes that he was meant to become a beautiful butterfly, despite society telling him otherwise.
📘 Lessons Learned: It’s a great reminder to follow your instincts in the face of peer pressure and the importance of understanding why you are doing what you are doing.🕷️ Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang | Chosen by: Janelle S. Kpeli
It is a middle-grade graphic novel by Elizabeth Agyemang. This is a modern-day retelling of Ananse the spider, a cunning tale rooted in culture, magical realism, and adventure.
📘 Lessons Learned: As a communicator, I was reminded of the importance of actively seeking out stories in what some would consider unexpected places and how to find inspiration by considering a different point of view. Happy reading! 📕 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Suess | Chosen by: Nick deWilde
“Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV. Except when they don't. Because, sometimes they won't. I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.”
📘 Lessons Learned: In a world where so many of us crave fame and attention, I think this quote is especially valuable. Of course, it's nice to be recognized by others, but if you come to depend on approval from others for your sense of self-worth, you'll build a shaky foundation for the rest of your life. Get comfortable playing the lonely games where you're the one who measures your own success.🦜 Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren | Chosen by: Zofia Ciechowska
This freckled red-head with pig-tails just turned 79 years old, but she’s a timeless classic as a free-spirited nine-year old who is adventurous and curious. The series has been translated into 70 languages, making it the fifth most translated children’s book in the world.
📘 Lessons Learned: What it teaches all children, especially young girls, is how to break with convention. Pippi taught me lessons about freedom, bravery, ingenuity, generosity, and having fun. As an adult, I still relate to those lessons and how I can apply them at work. 🧸 Corduroy by Don Freeman | Chosen by: Elizabeth Rasberry
It’s the story of a stuffed bear who lives in a department store, waiting for someone to take him home. One day a little girl wants to buy him but her mother objects because he's missing a button on his corduroy overalls.
📘 Lessons Learned: I love this story because it's a good reminder that we are fine just the way we are! 🦊 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy | Chosen by: Carolyn Clark
This book is a heartwarming ode to the beauty of individuality and vulnerability. From Amazon:
[The book] offers inspiration and hope in uncertain times in this beautiful book, following the tale of a curious boy, a greedy mole, a wary fox and a wise horse who find themselves together in sometimes difficult terrain, sharing their greatest fears and biggest discoveries about vulnerability, kindness, hope, friendship and love.
📘 Lessons Learned: I return to this book often and find myself sending it to both executives and teammates. It serves as a poignant reminder that everyone we meet has something to teach us, a lesson that’s invaluable in the tapestry of work and life, urging us not to overlook the wisdom nestled in every interaction.📕 The Family Book by Todd Parr | Chosen by Emily Cole
Being in a foster/adoptive home, this book is one of my favorites! It shares how each family looks different and the beauty in that.
📘 Lessons Learned: This message of course can be translated to a community and how we all fit together and belong even if we are not the same as the next person. ⚡ Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor | Chosen by: Nathan Fischer
We read this book in 6th grade. Now that my son is the same age, I just read it to him. Mildred Taylor wrote it 47 years ago, so he was skeptical that it would feel relevant, and it was super satisfying each night when he would then beg me to keep reading. I'm sure I could find some lessons applicable to the corporate world, but my overwhelming feeling is gratitude for my 6th-grade teacher, Mrs. Fitzhugh, who continues to impact my life decades later as I raise my child.
Try returning to your childhood bookshelf—it might not be the physical bookcase, it could be a virtual version you search for online, and think about what book transformed you. Wander around a library or a bookstore. You just might find yourself saying: “Fancy That!” when you discover the parallels from the past to the present.
Then, consider taking it one step further and begin a meeting by asking your colleagues:
What’s your favorite children’s book and why?
Thank you for reading The Switchboard. ☎️ Every interview edition is based on a live conversation and personally written by me — Julia Levy. Learn more about why I write. Review the Index of past posts.
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So many life and work lessons to be learned from children’s books. I could never pick a favorite—just favorites, like Charlotte’s Web, the Giving Tree and Horton Hears a Who!