The international bestseller that celebrates the myriad talents that each child brings to the world. The summer that I was preparing for my first teaching job, I met with some elementary and independent school administrators. It would be cool to do a spin off of this and have kids dive into all they ways that they are smart! One of the most pivotal messages that children need to hear and illustrated with a brilliant spectrum of colours that leap from the page and right into the heart.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. An illustration of a group of witches stirring a cauldron says 'smart at rhyme and telling time, and building cubbies, making slime' I've no idea what cubbies are. This collaboration between Davina Bell and Alison Colpoys is a celebration of what makes us us , of the strengths that we all have within ourselves – whether we’re dreamers, adventurers, readers or artists … The illustrations are whimsical and fun, with a beautiful colour palette. All the Ways to be Smart is a brilliant, gorgeous book bursting with unconventional magic spells that prove science is so much more than mere logic, and that being smart is above all about being happy. Being smart is building boats from boxes, painting pirates, wheeling wagons, being mermaids and riding dragons.Everything that a child does can be a form of smartness when it is approached in the right way and this is a really important lesson to remind children of all age groups. This process has meant younger and younger children are expected to demonstrate these skills and behaviours, and we talk about "school readiness" with three and four year olds, at least in my sector. So in the book, cutting out bats out of cardboard, imagining being a monster, picking out one's own outfit, being sorry when you're naughty, building cubbies (I am loving other members of the Anglosphere tripping over that word, incidentally, having had to explain various dialectal differences to children many times reading books from North America), these are crucial markers of "intelligence" if intelligence can be said to exist for little kids, because play is their work. For the readers who haven't heard the term before, cubbies is Australian slang for cubby house, which is the same thing as a play house.

It’s highly likely every child who reads this book will find something in it that shows they too are smart. I remember feeling so frustrated as a child because I wanted there to be more than one meaning of ‘smart’. This book celebrates the myriad ways one can be smart — knowing the right thing to say, being welcoming to a shy friend, using your imagination, taking chances.This book celebrates the myriad ways one can be smart--knowing the right thing to say, being welcoming to a shy friend, using your imagination, taking chances. Allison Colpoys (left) is an award-winning designer and illustrator, and the Art Director at Scribe Publications. A necessary and joyful celebration of all the different things that we can do, from ‘reading, writing, spelling’ to ‘caring, sharing, scaring’ to my personal favourite ‘drawing very pointy stars’. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung of the Kulin Nations — the first and continuing custodians of the land on which our books are created. Use alongside our I Am an Amazing Person Worksheet for a great PSHCE lesson during the transition period in EYFS, Year 1 or Year 2.