If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Trying
Written by Kobi Yamada & Illustrated by Elise Hurst
Age Level: 4-8 Years
Published December 15, 2020

I prefer nailing it on the first try.

Past failures pave the way to future success, but what’s another key to achieving your goals? Mentorship.

From the author of the award-winning book What Do You Do With an Idea? comes this profoundly beautiful book about the importance of having a growth mindset. A young boy is in awe of an old sculptor who chisels masterpieces from a hunk of stone. “How do you do it?” is the simple opening question that sets the budding young artist on his path to eventual mastery, but with a lot of frustration and self doubt along the way.

“ ‘I am now much closer to the end of my life than the beginning, and time passes whether we have the courage to do something good and worthwhile, or we don’t.’ ”

What makes this storyline exceptional in the popular genre of “growth mindset” books is the role of the old sculptor as mentor. He doesn’t let the boy give up, he guides him along his journey with endless advice and encouragement. Almost no one achieves success entirely by themselves, and the importance of mentorship is conveyed so brilliantly by this venerable artist and his passionate apprentice.