Thinking Big: Reading Guides for Ethical Kids

Thinking Big are literature guides for exciting middle-grade readers that are packed with activities to provoke discussion and reflection on big ideas like sexism, classism, migration, and racism.

Presented in age-appropriate ways, Thinking Big guides contextualise fun, diverse middle-grade novels within a wider context of inclusion and equity. They’re perfect accompaniments for your literature studies and a great next step after Growing Towards Justice!

The guides can stand alone, or you can choose a 10 month set of guides to carry you through the academic year. The guides are grouped in three thematic sets to offer your reader the opportunity to compare and contrast different books in a similar genre. Inside you’ll find craft activities, copywork, a ‘curiosity splash’ study, recipes, and suggestions for further tie-in materials, alongside special reflection and discussions questions for Thinking Big journal entries.

Guides are available as a 10-guide set and as individual guides. Each guide includes around 25 pages of resources.

This year’s picks are:

Magic and Mystery

The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski

Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron

Amira and Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds by Samira Ahmed

The Snow Girl by Sophie Anderson

Adventure and Family

The Emperor’s Riddle by Kat Zhang

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotsen

Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Animals and Companions

A Wolf Called Wander by Roseanne Perry

My Friend the Octopus by Lindsey Galvin

Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelley