Meditation Is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids

by Whitney Stewart, Sally Rippin (Illustrator)

Overview

Describes nine simple meditation exercises to help kids find focus, manage stress, and face challenges.

Feeling mindful is feeling good! You know when you're having a bad day, you have that wobbly feeling inside and nothing seems to go right? Find a quiet place, sit down, and meditate! In this daily companion, kids of any age will learn simple exercises to help manage stress and emotions, find focus, and face challenges. They'll discover how to feel safe when scared, relax when anxious, spread kindness, and calm anger when frustrated. Simple, secular, and mainstream, this mindfulness book is an excellent tool for helping kids deal with the stresses of everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807549087
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,114,849
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

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. She lives in Louisiana with her husband and son.

Sally Rippin has written and illustrated over 50 books for children and young adults. She was born in Australia and studied art in China. She lives in Melbourne.

Editorial Reviews

02/23/2015
“Meditation won’t take away your problems, but it will help you deal with them,” writes Stewart before walking children through nine meditative exercises that aim to ease feelings of fear, indecisiveness, and anger. Rippin uses a gentle-looking elephant to demonstrate each tactic; as Stewart describes drawing “an object that makes you happy” to improve concentration and clarity, the elephant’s thought balloon contains (what else?) a peanut. Stewart’s peaceful tone is reassuring and calming in itself, and a closing section addresses questions about boredom and sleepiness for meditation newbies. A solid resource for children (and the adults in their lives) who are seeking to get a handle on tricky emotions and situations. Ages 4–7. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is an intriguing introduction to an ancient art. Stressed parents may find it helpful too."—Booklist

"Stewart's peaceful tone is reassuring and calming in itself. A solid resource for children (and the adults in their lives) who are seeking to get a handle on tricky emotions and situations."—Publishers Weekly

"Ultimately, this will work best as a guide for an adult to use with a child in specific scenarios that might call for mindfulness and meditation. Keep this in mind as a possible introduction to meditation for children."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

02/01/2015
PreS-Gr 4—Any child who's ever had a bad day and experienced strong emotions that they're not sure how to express will welcome this guide to mindfulness, and perhaps discover a great tool for sorting through emotions. This soothing picture book uses animal characters to show children how to meditate. It covers nine simple exercises that children can practice in various situations, such as "mind drawing" for focus, "protection circle" for security, "special place" for relaxation, and "mind clearing" for clarity. There are also exercises for wisdom, kindness, decision-making, self-control, and openness. The book empowers children with a great set of tools to keep in their "back pocket" as they encounter situations on a daily basis. The playful artwork helps readers envision how each exercise is completed. This book would also be a great manual for teachers to have on hand to help students. The answers to frequently asked questions about meditation at the end of the book are excellent; readers will come away understanding that everyone moves through life and these exercises a little differently—and that's okay. VERDICT Tastefully done. Even skeptics will find useful exercises for classroom management and helping children cope with conflict.—Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE

School Library Journal

2015-01-10
This primer on visualization techniques uses a monkey and an elephant to introduce children to mindfulness and meditation. There's no story in this Australian import. Instead, an introduction directly addresses readers, describing meditation as a technique for managing one's feelings. Opening text counsels, "Meditation won't take away your problems, but it will help you deal with them," and appears alongside an illustration of an elephant relaxing in a bathtub and imagining "feelings pop[ping] up and disappear[ing] like soap bubbles." This prescriptive approach to meditation seems a bit reductive, but ensuing spreads that prompt specific visualization exercises move beyond using meditation to help one "deal with" problems. Throughout, the elephant can be seen meditating to relax, achieve focus, feel secure and so on. The monkey appears in some spreads as part of the elephant's visualization exercises. A closing section, "Questions about Meditation," advises readers about what to do if they feel bored, wiggly, sleepy, scared or frustrated, or if they have sore legs when they try to meditate. Ultimately, this will work best as a guide for an adult to use with a child in specific scenarios that might call for mindfulness and meditation. Keep this in mind as a possible introduction to meditation for children. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews