Long before Laure A. Stack started writing books for kids who feel odd, unsure, or scared, she already knew what it meant to build confidence from the inside.
Today, the longtime educator turns those ideas into stories that help young readers see their own value.
Some of the biggest lessons kids pick up do not come from schoolbooks.
They come quietly.
Like learning to trust yourself when other people ignore you.
Like going on when a task feels too hard.
Like liking the traits that make you different.
Like noticing that fitting in does not always mean you must change.
Stack has worked with children for more than twenty years. She taught full time, then after retiring she became a substitute teacher. She has worked with students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Across those years, she kept seeing the same kinds of troubles. Kids who lacked confidence. Kids who felt left out. Kids who lived with fear. Kids who felt pushed to act like everyone else.
Over time, those moments stayed with her. Then they found their way into her writing.
Now, Stack has four books out, and two more are being worked on. Her stories use animals, jokes, adventure, and imagination. They look at emotional struggles that can seem huge for a child.
Under every story is one lesson Stack had to learn too.
“I learned to be my own cheerleader,” she says.
The Child Who Found Company in Stories
Stack’s view of children who feel different comes from more than a job.
When she was young, she did not fit in with the main groups. She spent stretches alone. Still, that loneliness gave her chances to think. She learned how to stay busy in her own way.
“I was alone a lot,” she says. “I had to make my time. So, I wrote.”
For her, writing became a safe spot. She could be apart from the crowd without losing value. Her imagination did not need approval. A story could be hers from the first line.
Later, after she became an educator, she saw that same uneasy feeling in class again and again. Some kids questioned what they could do. Others dealt with teasing or being left out. A few kept trying, then slowed down when good results did not show up right away.
All of it fed into her first book, Once Upon a Boy.
In the book, a boy’s wishes start to fade once doubt takes over. The point matches what she noticed in many rooms with many children. Kids sometimes drop ideas after they decide those ideas are not really for them.
She is not saying confidence turns everything into a smooth ride. Her message is simpler. When a child thinks failure is already set, it becomes tougher to keep going.
A Bear Who Refuses to Be Ordinary
Stack pushes the theme of being different even more in Howie, The Unusual Bear.
In the story, Howie acts unlike the other bears you might expect. He does not just copy the usual bear habits. Instead, he makes a life that fits the way he feels inside. He puts together a warm cabin. He reads. He plants fruit trees. He enjoys his own kind of day.
He can live with standing out.
Still, he feels alone.
Howie wants someone nearby who gets him. So he keeps looking as time passes, through different seasons. At first, hope shows up often. Later, he starts to feel more discouraged than hopeful.
Then Chloe enters the tale.
Chloe notices what makes Howie special. She likes his cabin. She reads the same kinds of books. She looks at his garden with real care. She also happens to be waiting for a person like Howie. She has been searching too.
Their differences do not block them. Those differences help them find each other.
Stack keeps the point clear.
Chloe says, “It does not matter what you look like or what you enjoy. Every person matters. Every person is worth something.”
Review: When Being Different Becomes the Point
The appeal of Howie, The Unusual Bear comes from how it turns a hard childhood worry into something kids can follow.
Kids are told to be themselves. Still, childhood can quietly push you to fit in. Wear the same kinds of clothes. Like the same things. Act in ways that help others feel comfortable.
Howie shows a different path.
Howie is treated as unusual, not as broken. The story does not act like he has to be fixed.
But his loneliness is shown as real.
That choice adds heart to the book. It does not claim that being okay with yourself automatically ends the need for friends. Instead, it shows that you can want closeness and still keep your own self.
Chloe’s arrival supports the main idea. Sometimes you do not belong by changing into someone else. Sometimes you belong when you meet people who see your worth as you are.
For kids who face bullying, being left out, or feeling unsure of themselves, this message lands well.
It also works for more than bedtime reading. Parents, grandparents, teachers, and counselors can talk with children about self-respect, friendship, and being individual using Howie’s experience.
Becoming Her Own Cheerleader
Stack’s message about grit got proven again and again during her adult life.
For a full decade, she handled parenting on her own while also teaching full time. In those same years, she worked toward her master’s degree.
She had to juggle home, job, and school at the same time. That kind of grind is exactly the persistence she wants kids to practice.
“Every goal I set for myself, I reached,” she says.
She did not reach those goals because everything stayed easy. She learned that some progress means going forward even when people around you are not cheering you on.
So, she relied on herself.
“I will keep chasing what matters to me,” she says, “and I will make it happen.”
Her adventurous streak matches that same drive to step past what feels safe. Stack has climbed into the air by jumping from planes and she has gone swimming with sharks. Those stories fit an author whose next projects are turning out even bolder.
The Stories Are Growing Up, Too
Stack’s latest publications keep returning to how emotions change, but she looks at it from new angles each time.
In her third book, she focuses on fear and what helps someone adjust when a place feels unfamiliar.
Her fourth book takes a lighter route. It uses funny moments from meetings between pets and wildlife.
After that, her plans widen in two ways. The stories reach a wider age group, and the overall scope gets bigger too.
One upcoming title is set around sharks. It includes over 100 illustrations.
Another book turns to cryptids, meaning creatures that many people claim to have seen, even if science has not confirmed them. That one should include about 200 images.
Put together, these books let Stack bring together interests she has carried for years, including learning, animals, adventure, and the urge to wonder.
The stories may be taking on a larger shape, yet the main goal stays steady.
Tell kids to keep looking, asking, and exploring.
When Children Remember the Lesson
Stack donated books to nearby libraries. Young readers started calling her “the storyteller.”
The best feedback does not come from adults. It comes from kids.
One child once told her, “I learned not to quit on myself. I learned to trust myself because of your book.”
For someone who began as an educator and later became an author, that kind of note is hard to top.
It shows the message moved past the main character and the pages.
Stack’s idea of the American Dream is not mainly about being noticed. It is about what can still happen. She raised a child, worked in teaching for years, finished an advanced degree, tried new adventures, and turned what she saw into stories
Now she is telling children that they can shape their own future.
This is also why Howie feels bigger than an odd bear.
Howie stands in for the kid who stays on the edge. The kid who worries about looking different. The kid who asks, in quiet ways, if anyone will truly get it.
Through Howie, Laure A. Stack shares the lesson she carried from her own life.
You do not need to be someone else to belong.
Sometimes the first person you have to convince is yourself.
Learn More About Laure A. Stack
Official Website:
https://laurestack.com/
