Positives follows three children as they discover how practicing gratitude can transform their outlook, improve their emotions, and help them build meaningful new friendships. What inspired you to create this story for young readers?

Our troubled world. We’re having so many problems, and there’s so much tension and anxiety and people bickering and division going on in our world right now. I saw this, and I found myself very concerned about the next generation. Initially, I felt really hopeless and depressed. I thought, “What can I do?” I can’t change the political landscape, but I’ve been teaching a class on positive psychology for the last 16 years. Surely, I have something to offer. So I chose to write a children’s book that infuses positive psychology into the lives of these young people right at the time that they’re really going to need it. So, on the surface, the book seems to be about helping to improve happiness, but the real driving force behind it is helping them to become more optimistic and resilient.

Another strong motivator for the book is how happiness spreads. The science of positive psychology has proven that when one person becomes happier, it has the same spread as a virus. If you want to look it up, it’s Nicholas Christakis, and he has a book called Connected. So when one person becomes happier, it spreads to a thousand people per person! So if we get these books into even one classroom, it has the potential to help 30,000 people! So I’m hoping at a time in our history when we really, really need it, that this very small little book can help to make a big difference in our troubled world.

Dan begins the story feeling discouraged, while Annie and Zeke help him discover a new perspective. What did you want young readers to understand about changing difficult emotions?

I’ve been a therapist for nearly 20 years now, and I found that some people view difficult emotions like the weather. They believe the best they can do is get out their little umbrella and hope that it passes quickly. By teaching these positive psychology techniques, I’ve helped my students and my clients for years to realize that with a little bit of effort, they can improve their mood. It is incredibly empowering when you realize that there’s something that you can do to help yourself feel better. I felt like it was very important to instill this into our young people. Hopefully they take this skill home and teach it to their families. The next thing you know, happiness and optimism and resiliency are spreading throughout the country.

Annie shares a practice she learned from her grandfather. How did family wisdom and intergenerational connections influence the message of the book?

Well, I have to admit: in my personal family we’re a little short on intergenerational wisdom. So I’ll talk about my adopted family of positive psychology. In my class, Happiness 101, I often refer to Aunt Sonja, Aunt Barbara, and Uncle Dan. These are actually the giants of positive psychology: Sonja Lyubomirsky, Barbara Fredrickson, and Dan Gilbert. And in Positives, when Annie refers to Grandpa Marty, she’s alluding to Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology. There’s a ton of intergenerational wisdom there! 

One of the things that I absolutely love about positive psychology is how it is supported by science. In fact, I think the scientific rigor for us to support what we’re saying is even more stringent. We want to prove the positive psychology interventions actually work. So, yeah, there’s tons and tons of research out there. If you want to read some books, I would highly recommend Martin Seligman’s book Flourish and, of course, Sonja Lybomirsky’s book, The How of Happiness, Barbara Frederickson’s Positivity, and Dan Gilbert’s book called Stumbling on Happiness.

What message do you hope young readers take away when they see Dan, Zeke, and Annie work through their feelings together? 

My real hope for young readers is that they know they can improve their happiness – and that it is even better when you have other people to help support you. I want them to understand that they do not have to just be subject to whatever mood they are in – that they always have a choice! 

Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Amazon