For fans of Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book and Susan Verde’s I Am Peace, this gentle story introduces kids to mindfulness and breath awareness.
I AM A PEACEFUL GOLDFISH
by Shoshana Chaim
illustrated by Lori Joy Smith
Greystone Books, April 2021
When we are overcome with emotions, our breath—and a bit of imagination—can bring us back to a peaceful place. In I Am a Peaceful Goldfish, two children learn how to settle their difficult feelings with imaginative breathing techniques, pretending they are elephants, flowers, and even dragons!
A perfect book for readers of I Am Peace and I Am Yoga by Susan Verde.
Shoshana Chaim is a former kindergarten and physical education teacher turned wellness expert, who concentrates on helping families make healthy lifestyle choices. She also teaches children’s yoga and hosts The Plant Trainers Podcast. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
Lori Joy Smith is an illustrator of multiple children’s books and an artist whose works have exhibited in galleries around the world. Smith lives on Prince Edward Island with her husband, two girls, three cats, two bunnies, one dog, and two sheep.
Swimming, singing, and blowing bubbles—children and baby whales love many of the same things! This lyrical picture book compares the parent-child relationship with the bond between a mother humpback whale and her calf, showing how their underwater lives are touchingly like our own. Patterned in a call-and-response format, where the mother observes and the child responds, this book is peppered with facts and begs to be read aloud. At the story’s end, acclaimed author Beryl Young and debut illustrator Sakika Kikuchi leave readers dreaming of the wonderful world we share with whales.
On the brink of execution, 16 year old Ebba den Eeden is unexpectedly “elevated” from the bunker deep in South Africa’s Table Mountain where she has lived all her life, believing—as do all the other teenagers who toil daily to make their food and power the bunker—that the world « Above » is uninhabitable due to a nuclear holocaust. Instead, she is heiress to a massive fortune―one that everyone wants to control. While dealing with the machinations of the High Priest, his handsome son Hal, and the rules and regulations of a society and religion she doesn’t understand, she must also try to save her three friends, still stuck in the bunker and facing execution any day.
Little lion Luka is NOT worried about a visit to the doctor. He’s NOT scared of getting a shot. And he’s definitely NOT a little lion anymore. R-O-A-R! His younger sister, Lulu, might be nervous for her first checkup—but no need to worry, big brother is here to set a brave example. Step by step, he walks her through what will happen, offering encouragement and holding her hand. But when it’s his turn, on second thought, maybe he doesn’t need to see Dr. Brown today; he’s feeling perfectly fine, after all…
I am still unlearning the habit of secrecy. And yet, whenever somebody discovers that I am deaf, my body still reacts with churning terror. How do you build up a sense of robust pride when your body has taught itself to be fearful?