Did you know that every one of us has a hidden superpower just waiting to be unlocked? No, it’s not invisibility or flight, but an inner super-strength that builds the foundation for future success. What is it? It’s called Grit! The award-winning poet Brod Bagert created Captain Perseverance, one of three members of the ‘Grit Alliance,’ as an ordinary kid turned superhero who discovers an amazing superpower.  Captain Perseverance can turn the dread of struggle into the joy of success!

With high-energy illustrations and text that sings from the page, Captain Perseverance inspires young readers to discover the power of grit.

Is the power of perseverance, hard work, and determination really a super-human strength?  No, I don’t believe that is the case, but having grit doesn’t usually come naturally and can seem unattainable.  If you want to be successful, you have to believe in your ability to do so.  It’s actually quite simple when you break it down.  When things are hard for you, you have to be able to not give up in order to make it better and easier.  When I think about the things that I struggled to learn, I like to think about one of my favorite hobbies of playing guitar.  We always had a guitar in my house when I was little and when I was young, I would try and give up.  It seemed too hard and it felt uncomfortable and hurt my hands and it sounded terrible!  One day, I started out and by the end of the day my fingers ached and bled, but I kept practicing.  Over time I developed calluses and learned how to play notes and chords and wrote music that I could play for myself and others to enjoy.  It has become one of my favorite pastimes and to think it was something I wanted to give up on just because it seemed too hard.  While that is just a simple analogy, you can apply that same grit to most anything in your life and having a choice in your actions and thoughts is really quite powerful.  If you don’t lose sight of your goals and aspirations, even at something that seems too hard or impossible, you can dig deep to keep going and it gets better and better over time.  Captain Perseverance is a wonderful book because it isn’t a message that is just directed at children, it’s really a message for all of us.  It does make life a lot easier the earlier you learn grit, though, which is why Captain Perseverance: How I Became a Superhero is a must-have for librarians, educators, parents, and young children everywhere.  You can do it!

Topics and themes explored in Captain Perseverance include:

• The importance of perseverance when pursuing success in all areas of life.
• Instilling grit in children through the timeless power of engaged story telling.
• The power of “start with your worst, then make it better and better and better.”
• The role of perseverance in Bagert’s own midlife metamorphosis from lawyer-politician to children’s poet.
• How our ingrained vocabulary, such as using the phrase “do your best” often sets children up for failure.

About the Author:  Brod Bagert is the award-winning author of 17 books of poetry for children, young adults, and adults. His work has received numerous awards including the International Literacy Association’s prestigious Young Adults Choices award, the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award, the Independent Publisher Gold Book Award, and Mom’s Choices Gold Medal.  Born and raised in the City of New Orleans, Brod studied the classics in Latin and Greek, wrestled and boxed to vent adolescent angst, fell in love with and married his high-school sweetheart, practiced law, served in public office, and reared four children that are the joy of his life. Today Brod mesmerizes audiences with poetry, both his and those of the great authors of history, leaving participants with a new or reinvigorated love for poetry in the process.