The Other Side of Winning

Mira wins the class debate. So why does it feel so empty? The Other Side of Winning helps children ages 7 to 11 see that winning an argument is not the same as finding the best answer, and that the person on the other side might have the idea you were missing. Ms. Rowan announces a class debate tournament, and Mira is assigned to argue for a new school dress code against her classmate Zoe. Mira does not care much about dress codes, but she cares a lot about winning. She fills ten pages with arguments, barely hears a word Zoe says, and wins the class vote thirteen to six. Walking home, she feels strangely hollow. When her brother Simon asks what she learned, Mira realizes she cannot name a single thing Zoe said. The next day Mira finds Zoe on the swings and asks her to explain her arguments again, for real this time. Zoe tells her that dress codes can be unfair to families who cannot afford the right clothes, and Mira sees the question in a way she had not before. She did not lose anything by listening; she gained a new way of seeing. The book closes with Mira’s Insight, a one-sentence takeaway in her own voice, and a Thinking Prompt that asks readers whether they really listened the last time they “won” an argument. This is Book 4 of The Other Side, a seven-book series that follows eleven-year-old Mira as she learns to listen, question her assumptions, and discover the stories she could not see at first. Each book stands alone and ends with its own insight and prompt, which makes the series easy to use for read-alouds, morning meetings, and classroom discussions about perspective, fairness, and empathy. The story runs 24 pages with five full- page illustrations. The Other Side was written by Ellie Kim, a high school senior who built the series from the lessons she teaches in her library debate program for younger students, and illustrated by Cara Ko, a high school senior studying visual art. Read more