What's in Your Mind Today?

by Louise Bladen, Angela Perrini (Illustrator)

Overview

What kind of thoughts are in your mind? Are they angry or are they kind?

Children who struggle with negative thoughts may wonder how to make them go away. In this guided, illustrated meditation for kids, author Louise Bladen offers a simple mindfulness practice, not to banish bad thoughts, but to feel calm in the midst of thoughts that come and go. Children will learn how to breathe and center themselves in their bodies, find different ways to think about their positive and negative thoughts, and ultimately learn that they have the ability to feel calm and at peace no matter what kinds of thoughts happen to be in their mind at any particular moment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506463773
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Louise Bladen teaches meditation and mindfulness to children and adults. When not sitting on her medication cushion looking at her mind, she loves painting in watercolors, swimming, watching musicals, and walking her dogs.

Angela Perrini is an illustrator for children who lives and works in Italy. Her work has appeared in magazines, books, and art galleries.

Editorial Reviews

12/02/2019

Bladen, a meditation teacher, takes young readers through a guided mindfulness exercise in rhyme. A circle of children sit outdoors on blankets with their shoes off, eyes closed in participation: “Take a deep breath in... and out it goes. Can you feel the air rushing through your nose?” Elsewhere, Perrini depicts a pair of air-filled lungs, colorful hot air balloons floating peacefully within. As the kids are encouraged to “take a look at the thoughts in your mind,” the reader is shown what’s occurring within, behind facial silhouettes: Molly, whose thoughts “flit and flutter all over the skies,” has a head full of butterflies, while Oliver stares down a monster of a thought. Bladen’s rhyming structure does more to distract than support the exercise, and the meandering narrative makes the meditation difficult to follow. Perrini’s cheerful, childlike scrawls pack an imaginative punch that supports the narrative visualization. Ages 3–8. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Full of rhyme and clever poetic devices, this simple yet powerful story is a great guided meditation for young children." —School Library Journal

"A solid and unintimidating introduction to mindfulness meditation for young readers." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

02/01/2020

PreS-Gr 1—Everyone has thoughts that can cloud their brain and distract or worry them. But with simple breathing techniques and recognizing that each person has their own troublesome thoughts, it becomes easier to calm down, take a breath, and gain some peace of mind. Thus, this quick and helpful instructional story helps young children work towards dealing with their own chaotic thoughts. Originally published in Australia, Bladen's story makes its American debut. To start, the book highlights the words In and Out and from there the cadence of the book mimics breathing, and counts the number of breaths the reader is taking. Each successive page features the profile of a child, with the silhouette full of brightly illustrated images related to the child's specific wandering thoughts, whether they are bouncing, worrisome, or flitting. For example; one child's thoughts are bubbles, boiling and bursting, offering readers a pleasing alliterative metaphor. The story affirms that it is okay for children to have a difficult time with their thoughts while also offering a tried and true practice for coping. VERDICT Full of rhyme and clever poetic devices, this simple yet powerful story is a great guided meditation for young children.—Kaitlin Malixi, Kensington Health Sciences Academy, Philadelphia

School Library Journal

2019-11-24
The meditation practice of counting breaths to create calm is presented in this picture book first published in Australia.

This introduction to calming meditation is aimed at young readers and presents a simple technique: counting breaths to 10. After directly encouraging readers via second-person narration to count their breaths to 10, the story relates what each of five youngsters—illustrated with varied gender presentation and shown with diverse hair textures and skin tones—have in their minds, thoughtwise. For example, "Molly's thoughts are butterflies" while "Oliver's thoughts are monsters," and "Amelia's thoughts are wriggly worms." After acknowledging these different types of thoughts, the text segues to the idea that all thoughts are fleeting and transient—even scary ones. This important point is the basis of meditation, and it's heartening to find it reinforced so strongly throughout as well as being the final summation: "Just finding your breath can put you at ease. / Watch your thoughts drift away, then feel calm… / And at peace." In its essence, the theme is clearly presented and unintimidating, but the perky rhyme carries with it a hint of patronization. Perrini's illustrations don't vary from full-bleed double-page spreads, and while they present plenty of open space—reinforcing the idea of uncluttered mindfulness—they generally lack any imaginative interpretation, mostly mirroring the words. However, it is enriching to see diversity represented.

A solid and unintimidating introduction to mindfulness meditation for young readers. (Picture book. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews