Just like the "Voice" tag in New Socks is kind of a stretch, the "Growth Mindset" tag in this one is a little dicey. I'm going to stick with it though, and I'll explain why. Lane Smith describes the life of the Hocky family after they move from the city to a broken-down farm house in the country. As someone who has lived in the country for about 13 years, I find a lot of the humor in this book to be, well, humorous. There's a whole lot of truth in it. Between the description of leaves in the fall, the chili cook-offs, and the abundance of "furry" creatures such as squirrels and skunks, the country is successfully captured. I have to say that my favorite page, though, is 52, which shows the house and yard covered with snow with a caption that says "In the country there are lots of new games to play. This one is called FIND THE DRIVEWAY." After last year's blizzards, this was a game we played often at my house.
The growth mindset comes in during a couple of the vignettes, in which the Hocky children either become dejected with a failure or decide to take their failure and try again. Some of the vignettes - the ones where the children become dejected - demonstrate fixed minset, while some of them display growth mindset, but in the very end of the book each family member has an opportunity to show growth mindset at last. It's subtle, extremely subtle, but I like it. And I think I could use it. Bottom line, though, this book is a really funny time.
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