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"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Meditation is an Open Sky Book Tour!

It's the Meditation is an Open Sky Book Tour! Author Whitney Stewart is traveling around the blogosphere promoting her book, Meditation is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids, and today the tour stops at Chick with Books! What a fantastic book too! A children's picture book, Meditation is an Open Sky can also be read & appreciated by adults! 

Here's what the publisher has to say about the book…

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.

Here's an excerpt from the book…

You know when you’re having a bad day and nothing seems to go right? You have that wobbly feeling inside that makes you scared, sad, and mad all at the same time. Well, find a quiet place, sit down, and meditate.

Meditation won’t take away your problems, but it will help you deal with them. You’ll learn to watch your feelings pop up and disappear like soap bubbles. 

Read through this book and pick one meditation for today. 

Sit in a chair or cross-legged on a pillow on the floor. 
Keep your back straight but not stiff, and put your hands on your knees or in your lap. 

Close your eyes or keep them slightly open and stare at a spot on the floor. 

Inhale and feel your breath fill up your belly. 

Then breathe out slowly. Continue with slow, full breaths during meditation. 

What Did I Think About the Book? Here's my review…

Simply put, Meditation is an Open Sky by Whitney Stewart is a beautiful, calming book that helps young children understand their feelings and helps them deal with them through simple meditative techniques. I noticed myself becoming calm just reading the book, which by the way is beautifully illustrated by Sally Rippin in soft muted colors.

In the 32 pages, Whitney Stewart teaches about meditation in a storybook setting, having a cute elephant demonstrate the techniques such as relaxing in a bathtub, thinking about a peanut for "Mind Drawing for Focus", and sitting under a coconut tree with a ice cream cone for "Finding a Special Place to Relax". Whitney also covers how to help a friend and at the end of the book, answers questions about meditation. It's a book that I feel can grow with a child, but also a book that can help adults learn to find calm in their own storm. A picture book with a wonderful purpose! 

Should be on every child's book shelf and I would give it... 5 stars.

About the Author...

Whitney Stewart grew up in New England and graduated from Brown University. She published her first award-winning, young adult biography after interviewing the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the subject of two of her books. She trekked with Sir Edmund Hillary in the Everest region of Nepal; interviewed Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, Burma; and traveled extensively in Asia to research the lives of Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, and Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. She is the author of three middle-grade novels and multiple middle-grade nonfiction books, including an unknown tale of Abraham Lincoln and artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter. Her newest picture books include A Catfish Tale, a bayou retelling of the Grimm brothers’ Fisherman and his Wife, and Meditation is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids.

For More Information about the author, Visit Whitney Stewart’s website.
Connect with Whitney on Facebook and Twitter.
Find out more about Whitney at Goodreads.
Visit Whitney’s blog.
More books by Whitney Stewart.
Contact Whitney.

More Information about The Book…
Meditation is an Open Sky: Mindfulness for Kids is available at Amazon.
Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
Purchase at Albert Whitman & Company.
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

I want to thank Pump Up Your Book for inviting me to be part of the book tour and sending along a copy of Meditation is an Open Sky for review! Loved the book!

2 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Thanks for sharing this book. I've attended a session at the library conference in the past about using meditation with anxious children, but we could all benefit, I think.

readerbuzz.blogspot.com

Suzanne Yester said...

I never really thought about children using these techniques, but after reading this book it really makes sense and the author does a great job of teaching some of these techniques in a language that children can easily understand. But I found the techniques could also be quite beneficial for stressful self sometimes ;-)

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