Macy is way past lonely. What will she do? It's a weekend. Two whole days. Dez is away, Keya and Hooper can’t play. Her mom is busy and her brother Luke doesn’t need her help. Even Princess Paws rushes away. What will Macy do?

Sometimes, being sad can make you feel all alone, even when you're not. James is sad. Way past sad. His best friend, Sanj, is moving away. James feels all alone, and even hugs from Mom don't take away all his sad. But it helps to talk about it. Nothing can change the fact that Sanj is moving, but James learns that he can get past his sad.

Sometimes being mad is more than a feeling. Keya is way past mad. Her little brother Nate messed up everything―even breakfast. She heads to school kicking rocks and sticks. When her best friend Hooper tries to help, Keya shouts, "I don't even like you." It's not true, but Hooper storms off, kicking rocks and sticks too. Keya gave him her mad! Now it's up to Keya to find a different way past mad and to make things right. A relatable story that speaks to kids' emerging emotional intelligence skills.

Van is already way past scared of the storm outside. Then the power goes out! Abbi and Van are having a sleepover at Grammy and Pop's. Should be fun! But there's a storm, with loud thunder and bursts of lightning. The lights go out. Van is way past afraid. What can make him feel better?

The Best Children's Books of the Year 2022, Bank Street College STARRED REVIEW! "This frank portrait of childhood jealousy is both a compelling story and a perfect teaching tool. The protagonist's journey is authentic and accessible, making it a great way to start a conversation about big feelings."—Kirkus Reviews starred review Sometimes, being jealous can make everything feel worse. Yaz is jealous. Way past jealous. Yaz loves to draw, but no one ever notices her pictures. Everyone loves Debby's drawings, and one even got put up on the classroom wall with a star on it. Now Yaz's jealousy is making her think ugly things, and even act mean! How can she get past being jealous?

Sometimes being worried can keep you from having fun. Brock is worried. Way past worried, with his heart thumping and his mind racing. Today is his friend Juan's superhero party and he’s going all by himself. What if nobody plays with him? What if everyone laughs at him? Brock doesn’t feel like a superhero, but...what if he can save the day and find a way past worried all by himself? This engaging story speaks to kids’ emerging emotional intelligence skills and helps them learn to manage worry.

“What does it mean to be lonely?” Thomas Dumm asks. His inquiry, documented in this book, takes us beyond social circumstances and into the deeper forces that shape our very existence as modern individuals. The modern individual, Dumm suggests, is fundamentally a lonely self. Through reflections on philosophy, political theory, literature, and tragic drama, he proceeds to illuminate a hidden dimension of the human condition. His book shows how loneliness shapes the contemporary division between public and private, our inability to live with each other honestly and in comity, the estranged forms that our intimate relationships assume, and the weakness of our common bonds. A reading of the relationship between Cordelia and her father in Shakespeare’s King Lear points to the most basic dynamic of modern loneliness—how it is a response to the problem of the “missing mother.” Dumm goes on to explore the most important dimensions of lonely experience—Being, Having, Loving, and Grieving. As the book unfolds, he juxtaposes new interpretations of iconic cultural texts—Moby-Dick, Death of a Salesman, the film Paris, Texas, Emerson’s “Experience,” to name a few—with his own experiences of loneliness, as a son, as a father, and as a grieving husband and widower. Written with deceptive simplicity, Loneliness as a Way of Life is something rare—an intellectual study that is passionately personal. It challenges us, not to overcome our loneliness, but to learn how to re-inhabit it in a better way. To fail to do so, this book reveals, will only intensify the power that it holds over us.