Gr 4-6–Positive behavioral growth is a vital aspect of healthy character development among kids and one that is often overlooked in a formal capacity in school curricula. This series fills that role. Readers are first presented with a thought-provoking discussion on what each topic means, followed by detailed accounts of their expression. Inspirational stories feature a variety of people, situations, and locales, past and present, with varying degrees of popularity. Text boxes encourage pupils to reflect on these characteristics and apply them in their daily interactions. This is a valuable examination of character building with many academic uses for fostering communication and discussion. However, Diversity is a bit of an outlier in that it is not about a trait like the other books. The people profiled in this volume are also puzzling (Gandhi, Mother Teresa). VERDICT A useful tool for social-emotional learning collections.
