Raise children to be resilient adults

Shareez Bagaria, a human resources professional with more than 20 years of experience, has written her third children’s book, Luna’s Journey: A tale of grit and courage. Bagaria was inspired to write by her late father, who was a school principal. She has a Bachelor's degree in industrial psychology, and is dedicated to personal development and coaching. Bagaria speaks to Candice Soobramoney about the importance of children’s literature through the eyes of Luna.

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Q: Luna’s Journey: A tale of grit and courage is your third release in the children’s series following Luna Learns about Viruses and Luna Learns about Consent.

What is the latest book about and why do you write the kinds of books you do?

A: The latest book is about teaching children resilience, and how to persevere in spite of challenges or fears that they may have. As the world becomes stressful and complex to navigate, I found that young children, especially, needed to acquire certain tools to enable them to become mentally stronger. One of those tools, for example, is reciting affirmations.

As a life coach and a parent, my experience has taught me that we need to equip our children with the skills and knowledge that are beyond the ABCs and the 123s that we learnt growing up. Things like emotional intelligence, resilience, conflict management, self-control and mental toughness are not spoken about enough, and this is one of the reasons for the topic.

Q: Is the inspiration behind the books the “real” Luna, your daughter, and, as a grown up, how do you ensure the messages you share come across with the intended meaning?