Meena's Mindful Moment

by Tina Athaide, Asa Gilland (Illustrator)

Overview

Meena is excited to visit Dada and explore all the exciting sights and sensations of his home with him. But Meena has so much energy, it becomes a whole imaginary character she calls her hurly-burly hullabaloo. Wherever Meena goes, her hurly-burly hullabaloo goes too. Together they’re never calm, as they run and cartwheel and make a lot of noise!

But when Meena makes a mess, her grandfather is there to teach her how to handle it with deep breaths and meditative poses—after all, he has a hurly-burly hullabaloo too.

With playful art and engaging characters (real and imagined), this charming story all about mindfulness will be wonderfully relatable to anyone with a rambunctious hurly-burly hullabaloo of their own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781645672869
Publisher:	Page Street Publishing
Publication date:	11/30/2021
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Tina Athaide is an educator and the author of middle grade novel Orange for the Sunsets (HarperCollins), and multiple easy leveled readers. Born in Uganda, she grew up in London and Canada. She now lives in California with her husband, Ron, and their daughter, Isabella.

Åsa Gilland works in graphic design, packaging design and illustration. She has illustrated multiple picture books, including Flibbertigibbety Words (Page Street Kids). Originally from Sweden, she has lived in Indonesia for over twenty years.

Editorial Reviews

"[Meena's Mindful Moment's] bright and busy illustrations pulse with life, and the text is simple, clear, and easy to read." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-06-29
When Meena goes to visit her grandfather in his South Asian village, she is followed by her “hurly-burly hullabaloo”—an imaginary being that incites Meena to create chaos wherever she goes.

Meena and her hullabaloo (depicted as a wispy-edged, blue-green blob with striped arms and legs) try to calm down by doing yoga with Dada. But no matter how hard she works to hold tree pose, Meena can’t seem to stop her throat from singing or her legs and toes from wiggling and waggling. On the beach, Meena and the hullabaloo wreak havoc, tangling the fishermen’s nets and splashing everyone with a huge wave. Before long, the villagers can’t take it anymore, and they scold Meena before Dada placates them. Meena is saddened by this anger but is unsure what to do. Then her Dada introduces her to his very own hullabaloo (who’s very similar to Meena’s, except it’s white, like Dada’s hair). Meena now feels less alone and is ultimately able to force her hullaballoo into a state of calm. The book’s bright and busy illustrations pulse with life, and the text is simple, clear, and easy to read. While the mindfulness message is a positive one, in practice, this is essentially a story about a girl being punished for being loud and full of life: Meena’s transformation is sparked by the villagers’ anger at her being her loud, unadulterated self, and her triumphant self-control comes at the expense of her expansive personality.

Sweet and well intentioned but misses the mark. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews