A reminder to pause, breathe, and notice the moment.
Five friends from Ritchie’s informational series Exploring Our Community learn about mindfulness.
Pedro is nervous about moving. His mom, a martial arts instructor, teaches him and his friends about mindfulness to try to relieve his anxiety. She talks them through various tips and tricks. First they learn how to stretch and focus on their bodies. (A sidebar gives readers a stretch to try on their own.) Then they take a mindful walk through a park and into a garden, noticing the sights and smells. A sudden rainstorm brings up a discussion about emotions. “Like the weather, feelings change and are often beyond our control.” The pals head back to Pedro’s house for a sleepover, where they learn how to do a body scan before bed. Bold headings announce each topic (“Be Wise—Visualize!”) while the main narrative follows the friends. A subnarrative in smaller font gives more in-depth facts. Ritchie’s inked, comics-inspired illustrations are bright enough to appeal but also subdued enough to complement the calming subject matter. Examples of mindful games are appended along with a glossary. Pedro and his friend group make up a diverse, mixed bunch. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.3-by-17.8-inch double-page spreads viewed at 35.2% of actual size.)
A reminder to pause, breathe, and notice the moment. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0336-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer.
Rotner follows up her celebrations of spring and autumn with this look at all things winter.
Beginning with the signs that winter is coming—bare trees, shorter days, colder temperatures—Rotner eases readers into the season. People light fires and sing songs on the solstice, trees and plants stop growing, and shadows grow long. Ice starts to form on bodies of water and windows. When the snow flies, the fun begins—bundle up and then build forts, make snowballs and snowmen (with eyebrows!), sled, ski (nordic is pictured), skate, snowshoe, snowboard, drink hot chocolate. Animals adapt to the cold as well. “Birds grow more feathers” (there’s nothing about fluffing and air insulation) and mammals, more hair. They have to search for food, and Rotner discusses how many make or find shelter, slow down, hibernate, or go underground or underwater to stay warm. One page talks about celebrating holidays with lights and decorations. The photos show a lit menorah, an outdoor deciduous tree covered in huge Christmas bulbs, a girl next to a Chinese dragon head, a boy with lit luminarias, and some fireworks. The final spread shows signs of the season’s shift to spring. Rotner’s photos, as always, are a big draw. The children are a marvelous mix of cultures and races, and all show their clear delight with winter.
A solid addition to Rotner’s seasonal series. Bring on summer. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3976-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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