Integrity (Handbooks for Little Humans)
by Zanni Louise
(Simon & Schuster)
Zanni Louise writes about ‘Integrity’, the new book in her ‘Handbooks for Little Humans’ series for 4-8 year-olds, for PaperbarkWords blog.
Written by Zanni Louise
Illustrated by Jingting Wang
Guest Author: Zanni Louise
What is Integrity and why is it important when building relationships?
Zanni Louise, author of Handbooks for Little Humans
I’ve been thinking a lot about integrity. It’s one of those words that hangs on the banner over the principal’s head while they address assembly. It’s a “banner” word; a word you should know. But what does it mean?
I looked online. Read books. Watched YouTube videos. Talked to people. One person likened integrity to a banana: what you see on the outside is what you get on the inside. While this is a slightly vague and whimsical way of talking about integrity, it’s heading in the right direction.
The general gist, as I came to understand it, is: Integrity is identifying your core values and applying them to your life.
Everyone will have their own set of values. Things like honesty, respect, kindness. But maybe it’s cleanliness, turning off lights when you leave a room or picking up someone else’s litter even though no one asked you to.
Integrity is self-monitored. You do something because you think it’s important, not because you need a reward. That’s why, to understand your personal integrity, you need to identify what’s important to you.
Many people think of integrity as honesty. And honesty is certainly part of it. But it’s almost more about being honest with yourself. What truly matters to you? If something is important to you, you’re more likely to act on it. And will you be happy with yourself if you don’t act on your values?
Integrity helps us build trust. When we act with integrity, people are more likely to trust us because we’re consistent and dependable. Trust builds social cohesion.
I’m interested in anything that builds social cohesion, the core of the Handbooks for Little Humans series.
This series of six books takes a guidebook approach to starting conversations with kids about themes that contribute to humanity: Compassion, Confidence, Integrity, Inclusion, Fairness and Friendship.
There’s a guidebook for everything, from how to build a LEGO Hogwarts castle to how to clean the oven. My vision was to create a series of guidebooks for how to be a better human.
If you’re paying attention to global news (and many kids are!), it’s a bit of a quagmire out there. A big, sticky mess we don’t know how to start to deal with.
What if we equipped the little humans in our life with practical skills and tools for navigating this complex world of ours?
This series is conversational, friendly and fun, with humorous, playful illustrations by Kim Drane, Jingting Wang and Maja Veselinovic. The idea is that kids come to the books for the illustrations and stay for the conversation.
My hope is that kids think for themselves about what’s important to them. I want to challenge kids to really understand the impact of being a “good” human, not just because you’re going to get a sticker.
The books are intentionally non-hierarchical and approachable. They open a door for conversation, rather than stuffing information down your throat. I want kids to understand that adults aren’t experts, either! We’re all learning together and there’s so much growing to be done.
The more we learn to think for ourselves and have conversations that broaden and deepen our humanity, the better.
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