Cathy Studer was six years old when her stepfather started abusing her by telling her she was bad and deserved punishment. The nightmare lasted until her adolescence when her mother discovered the letters in which he had Cathy describe what he was doing to her....

Sometimes we’re too hard on ourselves and it makes us feel grumpy and unhappy. That’s what’s happened to Gus. In Cathy Studer’s The Adventures of Gus and Pasha, the first book, Gus Finds His Smile, addresses self-awareness and self-respect; in other words, feeling good about...