The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do

Lou loves adventures but when her friends invite her to climb a tree to an imaginary pirate ship, Lou makes excuses, procrastinates, and plays alone rather than leave the ground, despite encouragement from her friends. As Lou progresses from “I can’t” to “not yet” she learns about perseverance and the children decide on a different game that they all can play. This engaging, relatable Canadian picture book can be used as a read-aloud to teach about persisting with a task, facing challenges with courage, and trying something new, and can promote discussions of growth mindset, resilience, personal identity, facing frustration, excuses, problem-solving, and procrastination.