Mindful Me: Mindfulness and Meditation for Kids - Hardcover

Stewart, Whitney

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807551449 ISBN 13: 9780807551448

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 2018

Synopsis

Sometimes kids’ lives can get busy and out of control, and worries can take over. When that happens, knowing how to pause and regain composure with mindfulness can help! This easily digestible guide introduces kids to mindfulness as a way to find clarity, manage stress, handle difficult emotions, and navigate personal challenges. With step-by-step instructions to over thirty breathing, relaxation, and guided meditation exercises, readers will have an entire toolkit at their disposal and writing prompts will help them process their discoveries. Clearly written and incredibly relatable, this invaluable resource provides a positive introduction to the world of self-care and mindfulness.

About this title

About the Author:

Whitney Stewart is a children’s book author, meditation teacher, and a born adventurer. She has traveled to Tibet, Nepal, and India and teaches mindfulness at Tulane University and to children and teens. Her most recent children's book is Meditation is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids. She lives in Louisiana with her husband and son. Stacy Peterson is a full-time illustrator of greeting cards, magazines, and dozens of books including School RULES, Friends: Making Them & Keeping Them, and The Awesomest, Randomest Book Ever. Formerly, she was an art director at a New York City ad agency. She lives in Texas with her family. 

Review:

Foreward Reviews
This book embraces the can-do spirit and malleability of the young with a clear, accessible approach.
           
Mindful Me by Whitney Stewart is a children's guide to a relaxed, happy, self-aware life. The book provides life-changing skills of the sort that even adults seldom have.
 
Childhood is full of overwhelming emotional challenges--navigating school, makingfriends, getting along with parents, and learning to love who you are.This book empowers youngsters to utilize the practices of mindfulness and meditation tomeet those challenges head-on in a way that is healthy, balanced, andcompassionate.
 
The guide helps kids understand their thoughts and emotions, and respond to them in a positive, self-honoring way. This approach encompasses dailyhabits and key events, eventually turning attention outward to caring for and understanding others. The advice is as simple as it is powerful, and the practices have clear,easy-to-follow instructions and journal prompts for digging deeper.
 
Some may be skeptical as to whether kids are capable of grasping andpracticing mindfulness, but children may be more adept and able to learn this than adults. The book embraces the can-do spirit and malleability of the young; the approach is accessible,clear, and hits just the right level of higher-thinking skills. Abstract and overwhelming concepts are made easy to grasp using visual languageand comparisons. Far from condescending to children or watering down the practices, the book shows empathy and respectfor children, giving them a full set of meditation skills rather thandismissing their emotions and concerns. This judgment-free tone fosters openness and curiosity about the self and the world.
 
The illustrations by Stacy Peterson are beautiful and inviting. They have a feminine feel and most of the kids pictured are girls, but thecharacters are racially diverse and also include a child in a wheelchair, emphasizing the message that mindfulness is agift for everyone.
 
Mindful Me can change the trajectory of tweens' lives, helping them weather middle school, high school, and young adulthood.

A great guide for middle graders looking to incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives. The book presents mindfulness as a means of helping young people manageemotion, stress, anxiety, and concentration. Mindfulness and self-carestrategies, which are referred to as "Mindful Me Practices," make up the majority of the book's content. This gives it a hands-on, practical perspective. Chapters are divided based onvarious different contexts for mindfulness, such as emotions, thoughts,actions, and how to be mindful in and out of one's home. Each sectionfeatures various techniques presented with step-by-step directions, which often includes meditation and breathing exercises, as well as journal prompts for further reflection. Straightforwardlanguage and Peterson's kid-friendly drawings make an abstract topicaccessible to late elementary and early middle school-aged readers. This volume can serve as a helpful resource to both studentsand caregivers. VERDICT A practical toolkit for processing emotionsthrough mindfulness techniques and an excellent purchase for schoolsincorporating mindfulness into their curriculum."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, Feb 1, 2018

About this edition

• Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0807551449
• ISBN 13: 9780807551448
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Peterson Stacy