On Coming Back to Yourself — Read Together April 2026

Read Together · April 2026

On Coming Back to Yourself

Four books — one picture book, one for young readers, two for adults — woven around self confidence and expression and the willingness to show up in the world around us as our true authentic self.

There’s something powerful about learning to trust your own voice. Not the loudest voice in the room. Not the most polished or perfect. Just yours.

I chose this month’s books because they all circle the same truth from different angles: that confidence isn’t a destination you arrive at. It’s something you return to, again and again, in the small moments when you choose to keep going anyway.

Whether you’re reading alone with a quiet cup of something warm, or reading alongside your children, I hope these books remind you that your voice matters — especially when it’s quiet.

Here’s what we’re reading this April.

The through line thread

Confidence doesn’t look the same at four as it does at fourteen as it does at forty. But the root of it is the same at every age: the willingness to begin anyway, to mark your own page, to show up as yourself even when it’s uncomfortable.

That’s the thread that runs through all four of these books. Hold onto it as you read.

The Wildflower Picks

Picture book · Ages 3–7

The Dot

Peter H. Reynolds

“Make a mark and see where it takes you.”

Vashti believes she can’t draw. Her teacher asks her to make just one mark on the page. One dot. And from that single hesitant point, something remarkable unfolds.

This is one of the most quietly powerful picture books I know. It’s about permission — the kind you give yourself when someone believes in you long enough for you to believe in yourself. Read it with your child and then ask them: what would your dot look like today?

The thread: confidence begins with a single, imperfect beginning.

Young reader · Ages 10–14

Starfish

Lisa Fipps

"For the child who has been told, in a thousand ways, that they take up too much space."

Ellie has spent her whole life trying to shrink herself — not just her body, but her voice, her joy, her presence. Starfish is the story of what happens when she starts to take up space anyway.

This novel-in-verse is one of the most compassionate books I’ve read for young people navigating self-image and belonging. It’s honest without being heavy.

The thread: you were never too much. You were just with the wrong people.

Adult · The anchor read

Untamed

Glennon Doyle

"The book that gave a generation of women permission to trust themselves."

I’ll be honest with you: I have complicated feelings about this book. I think some parts of it are genuinely extraordinary — raw, funny, and profoundly freeing. And some parts ask more than they deliver. But as a whole? It cracked something open in me when I first read it, and I think it will for you too.

Glennon’s central question — what do I know to be true? — is worth carrying around with you long after you finish the last page. That question is the confidence practice.

The thread: the most radical thing you can do is listen to yourself.

ALSO READING · NONFICTION COMPANION

The Gifts of Imperfection

Brené Brown

"The most beautiful book I've ever read about reciprocity — between humans and the natural world, between giving and receiving."

If Untamed is the memoir version of this conversation, The Gifts of Imperfection is the research. Brené Brown has spent decades studying what it means to live wholeheartedly — and this book is the most accessible entry point into that work.

Read it alongside Untamed, or on its own. The chapters are short enough to read one at a time.

The reading ritual

How to read these together

Start with The Dot on a slow evening — read it aloud together, even if your children are well past picture book age. Let it land without rushing into a conversation. Sometimes the best thing a short book can do is just sit in the room for a while.

Give your young reader a few days alone with Starfish before you talk about it. This is a book that needs space — Ellie's story is tender and specific, and it deserves to be felt before it's discussed. When they're ready, the teenager question in the prompts below is a good place to begin.

Save Untamed and The Gifts of Imperfection for the evenings after everyone else is down. Read them alongside each other if you can — Glennon gives you the raw, lived version of unlearning perfection, and Brené gives you the research underneath it. Together they feel like a conversation between two women who've both done the hard work.

By the end of the month you'll find the same idea sitting in the room with all of you — just wearing different clothes depending on who's holding it.

A thoughtful moment

Discussion prompts

One question for each reader in your life — or all three for yourself.

For your little one

"If you were going to make one dot today — start one thing that feels a little scary — what would it be?"

For your young reader

"Ellie spends so much of the book trying to shrink herself to make other people more comfortable. Have you ever done that — made yourself smaller, quieter, or less than you actually are? What did it cost you?"

For you

"Glennon Doyle talks about the moment she stopped performing the life she thought she was supposed to want. Brené Brown calls it the cost of fitting in versus truly belonging. When did you last choose fitting in — and what would it have looked like to choose yourself instead?"

A note on where to buy

Every book mentioned here links to Bookshop.org — buying through these links supports independent bookstores in your community, not a warehouse. Same books, same price, a better place for your money to land.

There's no right place to begin. Just the place you're drawn to today.

Start where you are.

Read what you can.

Reflect in your own way.

I'd love to hear what's resonating. Which book are you reaching for first this month — and if you've read any of them before, did something land differently this time around? Leave a comment below.

Here's to growing together this month.

A deep breath in a beautiful life.

— Britt