By Dan Santat
Everyone knows Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. This is the part of the story nobody tells: what happens after, when you're too scared to climb back up.
You know the rhyme. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the king's horses and all the king's men put him back together again. But the story doesn't stop there. The cracks healed, but the fear didn't. Now Humpty is terrified of heights. He can't climb up to his favorite spot on the wall to watch the birds anymore, and he misses it every single day. So he builds himself a paper airplane, and one step at a time he decides to try climbing that wall again. What happens at the top is one of the loveliest surprises in any picture book, and it's about the thing every child eventually has to do: get back up after you've been hurt.
This is the one to reach for when your child has taken a knock and lost their nerve, whether it's a real fall or a hard day at school or just being scared to try again. Dan Santat tells the truth first, that getting hurt can leave you frightened long after the scrape heals, and then he shows a child that going back up is possible and worth it. The pictures do half the talking, so it reads beautifully aloud to a young child who can't read yet, and the ending lands with a lift that older children feel too. It's short, hopeful, and one of the best books there is about being brave.