We receive questions quite frequently from people asking for recommendations of specific types of books or movies so we've decided to start anonymously sharing select messages in this new "Ask A Mighty Girl" feature.
Hi A Mighty Girl,
My eight-year-old daughter is very shy and has a terrible fear of dogs and is a generally fearful person. Can you recommend any picture or chapter books about girls who overcome their fears?
She isn't the strongest independent reader right now, but I read to her all the time and she loved all the Harry Potter books and I've read her Alice in Wonderland, and The Graveyard Book by Niel Gaiman lately. But we also still read picture books. I love Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke. I think she likes fantasy and adventure fiction best.
So I'd welcome anything that she could read herself or that I could read to her.
Thanks so much! Your site is a wonderful resource and I like your facebook postings.
All best,
Jane
Hi Jane,
Thanks for your message! As I was thinking about your question, two categories of books came to mind – those explicitly about a character overcoming a fear and those starring courageous characters. In the first category, two great pictures books about facing fears are Sheila Rae, the Brave (the "scaredy cat" sister comes to the rescue) and Mirette on the High Wire (she overcomes fear to pursue her dreams) and two wonderful chapter books are The Two Princesses of Bamarre (the shy sister comes to the rescue) and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (she must confront, among other fears, one of dogs). Another excellent picture book about overcoming fears is Black Dog starring a young girl named Small who is the only one brave enough in her family to confront a scary dog which turns out not to be very scary after all.
Within the courage/bravery section, a few books that I think your daughter might especially like given her interests include The Brave Little Seamstress, The Best of Girls to the Rescue, Daisy Dawson Is on Her Way! (includes a positive depiction of animals), and Princess Knight. But this is just a very small sample of a large section; I recommend looking through it yourself for additional stories which might interest your daughter.
In the second category, there are a tremendous number of great books starring courageous heroines. I think that these would be helpful for your daughter so she could have a few brave role models. If you visit our values section, we have an entire sub-section of books with strong courage/bravery themes. You can sort the list by 6-8 year olds and will find a combination of picture books and easier chapter books. This section will include a mix of regular fiction and historical fiction. I encourage you to try out a few of the historical fiction stories as well because there are many inspiring real-life tales of courageous girls and women – many of whom had to confront fears or overcome adversity as well.
Given that she has a particular fear of dogs, perhaps reading a few books that depict dogs in a positive light would also help. In our animal section, we have a sub-section on girl and dog stories that you might want to browse through as well.
Finally, while it's not really about overcoming fears, I’d recommend this wonderful book about celebrating the contributions of shy children – Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine.
I hope this helps and that your daughter enjoys these recommendations!
All the best,
Carolyn
Co-Founder, A Mighty Girl
