“For Junie B. graduates” (Kirkus Reviews). Join Meena as she navigates the triumphs and challenges of family, friendship, and personal secrets in this charming middle grade debut. Meena’s life is full of color. She wears vibrant clothes, eats every shade of the rainbow, and plucks eye-catching trash from the neighborhood recycling bins. But when Meena’s best friend, Sofía, stops playing with her at recess and she experiences an unexpected and scary incident at breakfast, nothing can fight off the gray. That’s when Meena comes up with a plan to create the BEST and most COLORFUL Valentine’s Day Box in the class. With the help of her cousin, Eli, and her stuffed zebra, Raymond, Meena discovers that the best way to break through the blah is to let her true colors shine.

Meena learns that it is possible to have a long-distance friendship with Sofía while still making new friends.

When third-grader Meena starts to believe she has super powers and is protected from epileptic seizures, she jeopardizes her relationship with her friends and younger sister.

With the turmoil and conflict that has been present in recent times, it is imperative that new methods of teaching are explored in order to produce emotionally secure and connected individuals. Social-emotional learning and whole learner education has emerged as a strategy to ensure that students are actively engaged in learning, the school, and their community. It teaches them tactics that allow them to better manage their emotions, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. It is imperative that the whole learner is supported and encouraged to ensure proper mental health, academic achievement, and social responsibility of current and future generations. Multifaceted Strategies for Social-Emotional Learning and Whole Learner Education is a critical research publication that supports teachers who wish to utilize these teaching theories to meet their students’ needs academically, socially, and emotionally and to ensure that they become lifelong learners. Highlighting topics such as adult learners, professional development, and culturally responsive education, this book is ideal for teachers, guidance counselors, researchers, academicians, and students who want to improve their understanding of learners and their social-emotional growth at various stages of learning, to find strategies that will assist in the development of any learner, and to find strategic models that promote lifelong learning.

"Meena tries to keep her best friend Sofía from moving away"--

Perspectives and identity are typically reinforced at a young age, giving teachers the responsibility of selecting reading material that could potentially change how the child sees the world. This is the importance of sharing diverse literature with today’s children and young adults, which introduces them to texts that deal with religion, gender identities, racial identities, socioeconomic conditions, etc. Teachers and librarians play significant roles in placing diverse books in the hands of young readers. However, to achieve the goal of increasing young people’s access to diverse books, educators and librarians must receive quality instruction on this topic within their university preparation programs. The Handbook of Research on Teaching Diverse Youth Literature to Pre-Service Professionals is a comprehensive reference source that curates promising practices that teachers and librarians are currently applying to prepare aspiring teachers and librarians for sharing and teaching diverse youth literature. Given the importance of sharing diverse books with today’s young people, university educators must be aware of engaging and effective methods for teaching diverse literature to pre-service teachers and librarians. Covering topics such as syllabus development, diversity, social justice, and activity planning, this text is essential for university-level teacher educators, library educators who prepare pre-service teachers and librarians, university educators, faculty, adjunct instructors, researchers, and students.