Inside: a fantastic collection of picture books about mindfulness and meditation to start a meaningful discussion and put your children on the path of developing a mindful mindset.
I’m thrilled to be sharing this collection of amazing books about mindfulness and meditation with you. This is a topic very dear to my heart.
I’ve been practicing yoga and meditation for over two decades, which has benefited my mind and body immensely. I also completed kids’ yoga instructor training just so that I could get my kids hooked on yoga (which, by the way, totally worked!).
I am offering the following list for you as a way to open discussion on the topic of mindfulness and meditation. Even if you’ve talked about it before, mindfulness is not something that you can learn once and be done. Mindfulness is a mindset that has to be lived and nurtured over time, and the place to start is by encouraging a thoughtful conversation about openness, curiosity, and acceptance.
Some of the lessons your children will be exposed to from reading the following stories are: grumpiness is a choice, deep breathing doesn’t come naturally, and we can be both perfect and a work in progress at the same time.
Reading these books will help your kids to begin to recognize and internalize the pillars of mindfulness, such as letting go, patience, belonging, free choice, and non-judgment.
The stories’ protagonists range from bunnies to pirates, but what all the books have in common are important themes and good storytelling because we all know that good stories can change who we are.
As you go, ask your kids discussion-provoking questions and support their efforts to dig for golden nuggets of wisdom. There’s no need to read all the books at once or rush through the questions. Instead, my favorite method is to bring an aspect of a story to light while setting the table or putting away toys and encourage a gentle reflection.
Related: The Most Important Reason to Practice Mindfulness with Your Kids
Fantastic Picture Books to Foster Mindfulness
Small Saul, Ashley Spires
From one of our favorite authors and illustrators, Ashley Spires comes a gripping pirate adventure. Little Saul wants to sail the ocean blue, but he’s too short to be accepted into the Navy. Not a prisoner to limiting beliefs, our protagonist enrolls in the Pirate College instead. That choice comes with its own set of (often comical) challenges.
Learning to be ok with the obstacles and willingly adapt is an important part of mindfulness training. There will always be things, both big and small, that don’t go our way; practicing acceptance and non-judgment are two fundamental mindfulness concepts that Saul demonstrates very well.
It’s Ashley Spires, so you know that the cartoon watercolor illustrations will be delicious: funny, endearing, and full of expression.
The Three Little Yogis and the Wolf Who Lost His Breath, Susan Verde
Oh my gosh, I’m absolutely delighted to talk about this book! This inventive rendering of the story of The Three Little Pigs is one of my favorites!
Guess what? The Big Bad Wolf has some anger issues, surprise, surprise. And every time he gets angry, he needs to huff and puff to blow things down. Not only does it alienate others, but, except for a few seconds of relief, all that puffing doesn’t actually make him feel any better. But the Big Bad Wolf is in luck: the Three Little Pigs took up yoga and meditation, and they have a thing or two to teach him.
The techniques presented in this book are fantastic for all children (and their adults)! It’s very easy to see how they work and how to start implementing them with your kids right away. And, what may be more important for your little ones, the little piggies in yoga poses, are super adorable. The last page explains the breathing exercises and yoga poses mentioned in the book in more detail.
Angry Cookie, Laura Dockrill
I’m including one more book about anger because it’s such a common emotion and often challenging for kids to manage well. I find that kids sometimes conclude, “I feel angry, so I cannot be a yogi because those two things don’t go together.” And, of course, that’s just not true.
When it comes to kids, anger is usually natural and not really a problem; it’s what kids end up doing while angry that can potentially create a problem and get them in trouble.
This cookie is really angry. Nobody listens to him, and he has a lot to be angry about. However, when this cookie comes across someone (the reader) who is willing to listen and accept the cookie as it is, the anger dissipates.
What I love about mindfulness is that it teaches that anger is part of our whole self and, as such, has to be accepted. Instead of wasting energy pushing it away, we need to cradle it in our arms as we would a crying baby, listen to it, and love it for what it can teach us. Easy? Certainly not! But so worth the effort.
Everything Will Be OK, Anna Dewdney
We can all get better at navigating the highs and lows of our lives with a bit of chill wisdom, or what the Buddhists call ‘Prajñā.’
In this book, the reader is taken on a tour of many everyday pains and frustrations, like this: “Have you ever stubbed your toe? It’s OW! OW! OW! But did you know…that if you wait, it goes away? Everything will be OK.” It’s all deceptively simple but profoundly relatable.
The repeated refrain “everything will be okay” is like a reassuring lullaby. In fact, we sing it even when we are not reading the book, like yesterday when I was walking from the refrigerator with a raw egg in my hand, tripped over my dog, and dropped the egg! “Oh, no, mommy!” exclaimed my little one, jumping off the chair where she was mixing pancake batter and trying to hold the dog from stepping into the raw egg. So I sang, “Everything will be ok!” the way we do when we read the book. And she joined in, laughing because the lesson was really sinking in!
The soft, sweet artwork is packed full of emotional expression and so perfect for the story. You will want to read it over and over again because no matter our age, we all like to hear that it’s all going to be okay.
The Very Inappropriate Word, Jim Tobin
In this story, a little boy hears a new word that sounds pretty cool to him, and he cannot wait to try it out. Too bad it’s an appropriate word. So, as you can imagine, everybody freaks out when he starts using it. This can baffle and hurt kids that didn’t really mean any harm, but it’s an important lesson.
What I told my kids after reading this book is that words have power. You can use words that will make people say, “wow, that’s awesome.” Or you can use a word that will make people gross-out.
But besides having power over other people, words have power over us. The words that we use when talking to ourselves can make or break our state of mind and our goals. Because whatever we believe we can or can’t do, it will become our reality.
People who practice mindfulness and meditation believe in the power of affirmations. Those are short sentences in the present tense that describe what you want to be your reality. I am smart. I’m powerful. I can do anything I put my mind to. Those are some of the examples of affirmations I practice with my kids. This is a great book for teaching kids to respect the power of words and use them wisely.
Chicken in Space, Adam Lehrhaupt
One of the tenants of mindfulness is being open, what yogis call a beginner’s mind. It means an attitude of openness, eagerness, and curiosity, saying “no” to preconceptions and “yes” to opportunities.
The first double spread of the book features Zoey with her head tilted up, staring longingly into the vast open space above her. Zoey, we are told, is not like other chickens: she has dreams. Another two things she has is a plan and a trusty friend called Sam.
But Zoey’s latest plan doesn’t attract support from the other farm animals, who either say that they are happy as they are or see a problem with the execution. “Not problem,” exclaims Zoey. “An opportunity!” And, of course, we can’t help but cheer Zoey on because we just know that her determination will help her succeed!
The pale colors and muted backgrounds let Zoey’s vivid imagination shine. I actually don’t know much about illustrator Shahar Kober, but I poked around his website and liked what I saw. Check out his contact page with a glorious depiction of fatherhood in all its glory!
If you want an opportunity to talk with your kids about approaching life with a beginner’s mindset, this book is for you.
Meditation Station, Susan B. Kat
The main idea here is that things come and go all around us all the time. But we don’t have to engage and get swept away; we can stay where we are (at our own station), breathe in and out and just be. My favorite part of the story is towards the end, where it says, “remember, you are your own breathing boss.”
Breathing is such a profoundly underrated activity. It’s the first thing we do when we are born and the last thing we do before we die, but many of us don’t know or care to breathe properly from the diaphragm. I taught my kids a lot of breathing exercises – box breathing, alternate nostril breathing, rainbow breathing, among others – and I notice them using it when they need it. It’s a good idea to teach your kids and will help them for the rest of their lives. You can find my free meditation printables in my library of resources.
Related: How to Make Mindfulness Jars
No More Cuddles, Jane Chapman
Bigfoot is a bit of an introvert, which means he recharges his batteries by being on his own. But try to explain that to the forest animals who can’t stop hugging him. All. The. Time. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy the cuddles. He simply needs some time to himself!
We all need time to recharge, but it’s amazing that many people – even grown-ups – don’t know how to have a meaningful break here and there. Learning how to say no and set boundaries is a useful skill at any age, and the sooner you start teaching this to kids, the better they will be at it. Especially if they are introverts like Bigfoot in this story (and like me), they may need extra time alone to mentally process life and recharge, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!
Grumpy Pirate, Corinne Demas
Some people seem to be permanently grumpy. Take Grumpy Gus, a pirate, at the center of this delightful rhyming story. “He wakes up in his hammock and starts his day off grumpy. My breeches are too itchy! My pillow is too lumpy!”
And it only goes downhill from there. Good thing the captain of this pirate ship comes up with a wise plan to help Grumpy Gus change his attitude.
I love this story because I believe that how we think shapes how we live. The point of this story is that a negative, complaining attitude is a choice. Teaching kids self-reflection and consciously choosing a positive attitude is an important lesson with far-reaching results.
Follow Your Breath! Scott Ritchie
At the center of this story is Pedro’s mom, who is spending a day with a group of kids, teaching them the basics of mindfulness. She talks about how to sharpen the senses, accept unpleasant events, be with unpleasant feelings, pay attention to what is happening at the moment, breathe for success, visualize the best outcome, and so much more… It’s right up my alley!
This is a very cool book with fun illustrations and a great message, but I’ve yet to meet a kid who is willing to stick around to the end. I think the best way to use this book is to read a small part each day and then skillfully weave the important points into the fabric of daily happenings and into the spaces between the happenings to absorb one message at a time. Plus, I promise you will learn so much from reading it for your own personal use and growth.
The Bear in the Boat, Owen Hart
The cover of this book caught our attention with its bright colors and the sensation of movement in the image, and once we read the story, we all thought it was brilliant. This bear is good at planning. She anticipates all eventualities and is prepared for anything. But sometimes, no matter how much you prepare, things just don’t go according to plan. And when disaster strikes and the forest river overflows its banks and sweeps destructively through the trees, Bear has no plan. What can she possibly do now?
Have your kids had the experience of looking forward to something that didn’t work out? Or dealing with unexpected setbacks? This book lets you open a discussion on how mindfulness can help us ride out unexpected challenges. We can focus on the breath while trying to release anxious feelings, accept the situation, and respond fluidly armed with the “weapons of reason.” (Marcus Aurelius came up with “weapons of reason,” and I love it). Fittingly, there’s a famous image depicting Zen as a monk sitting cross-legged and tranquil while surfing a giant wave. Ride it!
I Forgive Alex, Kerascoet
What do you want your kids to know about apologizing? Probably that it takes courage. And that sometimes we don’t want to do it even when we know it’s the right thing to do.
Alex accidentally bumps another boy’s artwork into a puddle. The boy is upset, and we can see from Alex’s body language that he’s pretty upset too. How can he amend this situation? When I was still young and very impressionable, I once read that not forgiving is like drinking poison and expecting another person to die from it. This ominous warning made me eager to forgive for life.
This story is all the more powerful for being wordless. You can do so much with it, asking your kids at pivotal moments, What do you think is happening here? Does Alex look happy? What can you tell from his slumped shoulders? Why is he looking down? What do you think he feels right now?
Rodney was a Tortoise, Nan Forler
I’ll bet that all your careful preparation for parenthood didn’t include learning what to say when a family pet dies. Mine didn’t. And I didn’t anticipate the extent of the heartbreak that would hit my kids when our cat died recently. He was a cuddly little kitty (only ten pounds in full maturity) who liked to nap on my kids’ laps while they were doing their schoolwork, and they would refuse to get up (for what seemed like hours) in order not to disturb his sleep. We all miss him and how his naps taught us to keep sitting (not an easy thing to do for kids!)
Bernadette, the protagonist of this story, does everything with her tortoise. They play Go Fish, dress up, eat together, and read stories… And guess who comes to school on Pet Day? Yep, Rodney, the tortoise.
But When Rodney suddenly died, the heartbroken girl “crawled deeper and deeper into her shell until all of Bernadette seemed to have disappeared.” Don’t you just feel her pain? While there is nothing that can really dissolve the pain of loss, mindfulness teaches us the helpful concept of non-striving. It means letting yourself feel the pain instead of struggling against it. And even though we never like pain and feel so vulnerable in it, pushing it away creates more pain. We should instead have compassion for ourselves and what we go through.
I love the gorgeous watercolor and pencil artwork in this story. The lightness, softness, and fluidity of images counterbalance the heaviness of the subject matter. Death comes to all our lives, and having a conversation with kids about it is truly a service to them.
Vanilla Ice Cream, Bob Graham
In Vanilla Ice Cream, a small Sparrow takes off from a little town in India. It travels with bags of rice across the world and ends up in an American city where a little girl is visiting an ice cream store for the first time. Let’s just say that things don’t go as expected, and the little girl ends up “receiving” much more than you would expect from a visit to an ice cream store.
One of the tenants of mindfulness that took the longest for me to understand was the concept of oneness. And when I say “understand,” I mean not in an abstract or conceptual way, but deeply, on the cellular level. After all, when you are standing in front of a library clerk who demands $50 in book damages that were there when you first checked out the book, it’s really hard to feel a sense of oneness with the world in general and with the librarian in particular. It’s you Vs. the hostile world, isn’t it? The trick is not to see the librarian as the receiver with you as a giver of the money. The trick is to see both as receivers and to discover what you are each receiving from this interactive experience.
This book ever so sweetly reminds me of the all-important concept of interconnection and gives a great introduction to those new to the idea.
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Is there a book about mindfulness and meditation you love that is not on this list? Let me know in the comments below!
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