Self-Reliance is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains a stirring call for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and to follow their own instincts and ideas. It contains one of Emerson's most famous quotations: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." The essay, possibly Emerson's most...

Teaming up with an ineffectual aristocrat when her magically gifted younger sister is kidnapped, Miren departs from her small fishing village for the first time and is forced to rely on her natural strengths to negotiate a war and rescue her sister.

A child shows all the things he has learned to do all on his own.

Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author's book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

"Terribly unhappy in his family’s crowded New York City apartment, Sam Gribley runs away to the solitude-and danger-of the mountains, where he finds a side of himself he never knew."--publisher's website.

"A moving tale of love, fear, and the courage of letting go. Beyond the hill where the tree lives, lies Who Knows Where. Every year when the wind blows, the tree's seeds sail to this mysterious place, until the day an especially tiny seed decides to remain on its branch. At first, the tree feels the seed should leave. If it doesn't, it will never grow roots of its own. This strikingly illustrated picture book celebrates the rhythms of the natural...

When a pair of chopsticks get separated, after some traumatic moments the two friends eventually learn to stand on their own.

"Middle schooler Rafe Khachadorian faces his greatest challenge yet as he struggles to complete a week-long wilderness survival course to prove to his school administrators that he can succeed"--Provided by publisher.

The little princess is determined to go on a camp-out without anyone's help.

"The promise that you can 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' is central to the story of the American Dream. It’s the belief that if you work hard and rely on your own resources, you will eventually succeed. However, time and again we have seen how this foundational myth, with its emphasis on individual determination, brittle self-sufficiency, and personal accomplishment, does not help us. Instead, as income inequality rises around us, we are...