Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts

by Susan Cain

This is a book for and about young readers, but I suspect that some parents may skim these pages as well. The school years can be challenging for introverts—and for their parents too. The most important advice I can offer is to help your quiet children to draw on their own natural strengths—as listeners, observers, thinkers, and quietly determined doers. It’s our role as parents to help our children grow, and to explore their limits, while also making sure to honor, and take delight, in who they actually are. As Eleanor, the mother of an introverted teen boy, puts it: “It’s more important for introverted kids to show that you’re on their team. They need more team members than the normal teens—people who really know them.”