The Red Chalk

Main character Sara has a piece of red chalk that she thinks is boring. After successfully tricking a friend into trading his marbles for her chalk - she says it has magic powers - she quickly becomes bored with the marbles and seeks her next victim. This pattern continues, but the interesting element is that she is always bored and unhappy with what she has and is continually on the hunt for what everyone else has, but each friend that she trades with is completely content with their new toy. It doesn't matter to them that it's just a normal piece of chalk...to them, it really does have magical powers. Why not? They all take their typical object and have the time of their lives with it while Sara remains completely unhappy. In the end, Sara realizes the great thing she had originally with the red chalk, and is finally content.

This book is adorable. The illustrations are cute, Sara is cute, and the lies Sara comes up with to trick her friends are...imaginative. For me, though, this book is an excellent example of growth mindset. Our students look around in the classroom and in the gym and in the lunchroom and they see what everyone else has. Everyone else is smarter, stronger, more popular, more artistic, more musical...fill in the blank. They wish they could trade talents - or just have one of the talents - of their peers and they fail to see what they have already. But everyone has talents, everyone has abilities, and everyone has the ability to learn. All of Sara's friends traded their items with Sara based on the premise of the lies that she told them. But when they realized that their item didn't really make you a genius or give you three wishes, they had just as much fun with the item anyway. They saw the item for its true potential, not just what they were told at face value. Just like Sara eventually realized that she should have seen the value of her red chalk rather than chase after what everyone else has, our students can learn that they already have the abilities to be whoever and whatever they want to be.