Joanna Gaines’ new children’s book can help parents raise resilient kids

It’s official: There is nothing Joanna Gaines can’t do, because the mom of five who is juggling multiple businesses and plans for her own TV network is now launching a children’s book (which she wrote with help from her kids—13-year-old Drake, 12-year-old Ella, 9-year-old Duke and Emmie Kay, age 8).

Her new kids book, We Are the Gardeners, just hit stores and she is just as excited as we are.

“Our kids book, We Are the Gardeners, is in bookstores today!” Jo announced on Instagram Tuesday, using a sweet throwback post of the kids in their first garden.

“We wrote this children’s book together to tell the story of our journey in the garden—a story of trying and failing and trying again and never giving up,” Jo captioned a previous Instagram post announcing the book. “We hope it inspires you and your little ones to get outside, get your hands dirty, and grow something great!”

This is Jo’s first foray into children’s literature, but the woman knows her way around a best-seller list, having published Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave and Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering, as well as The Magnolia Story, which she co-wrote with her husband Chip.

Joanna Gaines has a way with words, and we’re excited to be able to share those words with the next generation.

“The garden has always been a place that inspires me. There’s something about digging deep into fresh soil or watching new life burst from what was not long ago just a tiny seed that reinforces what a gift life is,” Jo said in a press release. “I think that’s part of why my kids have come to love spending time in the garden just as much as I do. It can be a great teacher, if we pause long enough to notice all there is to learn. Where every day can be a lesson in hard work, and sometimes even in failure, but where there’s also growth worth celebrating. This book is our way of sharing what the garden means to us, and the many adventures we’ve had along the way!”

The 40-page hardcover book ($20 USD) is full of lessons on resiliency as the Gaines kids “chronicle the adventures of starting their own family garden” and all the challenges they face (like bunnies who eat their crop) while learning to grow their garden.

As Karen Petty, a professor of early childhood development and education in the Department of Family Sciences at Texas Woman’s University wrote for Texas Childcare Quarterly, “Books that tell stories of characters faced with challenges or problems to solve are best because they can become the background for talks about the elements of resilience.”

Basically, parents can help build resiliency in their kids just by reading them books that tell these kinds of stories.

“Helping children to become more resilient may be the most important thing that caregivers can do in providing a buffer against emotional hardships,” Petty explains, noting that choosing story books in which characters are resilient in the face of some kind of adversity is a really simple, low effort way for parents to do this very important thing.

Some of Petty’s recommended reading for parents looking to raise resilient kids includes The Invisible String by Patrice Karst, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems, Blackout by John Rocco, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

We can’t wait to put We Are the Gardeners on the shelf next to those modern classics.

[This post was originally published January 14, 2019. It has been updated.]

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