\u201cAt home, my confidence shows, \/ at home, my bravery glows.\u201d But when the young narrator is out and about, everything changes. Interacting with other kids at the park is \u201ca big task.\u201d \u201cI try to play, I try to shout, \/ but my brave voice just won\u2019t come out!\u201d Though the protagonist looks forward to school, upon arrival, \u201cfear replaces my words, and my legs start to shake.\u201d When the teacher asks a question, the child\u2019s \u201cglow\u201d is nearly extinguished. But the narrator is comforted by Mum and Dad\u2019s repeated reassurance: \u201cIt\u2019s OK to feel upset, \/ my brave muscles haven\u2019t grown fully just yet.\u201d As the narrator practices \u201cbrave talking\u201d at the park, a restaurant, and more with the help of a special present, those muscles gradually strengthen: \u201cMy glow stays bright even though my voice is still small, \/ each time I am brave, \/ I feel 10 feet tall!\u201d Reinforcing the emotionally descriptive rhyming text, Baykovska\u2019s expressive cartoon illustrations sympathetically convey the contrast between the talkative exuberance the narrator displays at home and the sadness and anxiety experienced in public. The narrator and the rest of the family have tan skin; background characters are racially diverse. Backmatter includes tips and resources on selective mutism for caregivers.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAt home, my confidence shows, \/ at home, my bravery glows.\u201d But when the young narrator is out and about, everything changes. Interacting with other kids at the park is \u201ca big task.\u201d \u201cI try to play, I try to shout, \/ but my brave voice just won\u2019t come out!\u201d Though the protagonist looks forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}