Your Mind is Like the Sky
No. of pages 32
Published: 2019
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This book features in the following series: Great Big Books, Growing Up .
This book has been graded for interest at 7-10 years.
There are 32 pages in this book.
This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+).
This book was published in 2019 by Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd .
Laura Carlin is an illustrator and ceramics artist based in London. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, her illustrated edition of Ted Hughes' The Iron Man won the V&A Book Illustration Award in 2011. Her clients include The New York Times, The House of Illustration, Vogue magazine, The Guardian, and The Financial Times among others. Bronwen Ballard is a coach and psychologist who teaches mindfulness-based thinking skills in primary schools. She has a degree in Philosophy and Modern Languages from Oxford University, in Psychology from London Metropolitan University, and an MA in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology from the University of East London (specialising in Mindfulness). She has 20 years' experience of working with corporate clients, adults and children, often on the same topic: thinking about how we think and finding ways to do it better. Since her first daughter started school, Bronwen has made it her mission to help children avoid the thinking pitfalls so many of us fall into. She lives in South West London with her husband and two daughters. Your Mind is Like the Sky is her first children's book.
Our most cherished picture books tend to be those that contain an underlying wisdom. Giraffes Can't Dance (Giles Andreae) affirms that it is all right to be different; Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar has inspired Marxist, feminist and queer interpretations - but is described by its author as "a book of hope", showing how even the most insignificant-seeming creature can unfold its talent. But our busy modern children do not need whimsical stories to help them make sense of the world. Instead, they can take direct advice from a growing library of self-help books, designed (to quote the author of one, Create Your Own Happy) to help them take "positive steps towards their own happiness and positive self-esteem!"
Some parents might find the idea of children's self-help off-putting. But Your Mind is Like the Sky, by Bronwen Ballard (a "personal coach and organisational consultant"), is an exemplar of the genre. It is aimed at readers of seven, but would be suitable for younger ones too. "Your mind is like the sky," it begins. "Sometimes it's clear and blue", with "white, fluffy cloud thoughts", but sometimes it is full of "darker, meaner, raincloud thoughts". This is the problem that the book addresses.
Most children's self-help books take anxiety as their theme. Unusually, however, there are no games or activities suggested here, and no "calm down tactics". The message is relayed solely through the pictures and text, which show a little girl wrestling with her dark thoughts - and finally beating them. "When a raincloud thought comes into your head, you say, 'Oh, it's a raincloud thought'. And then you notice all the white fluffy cloud thoughts as well." With lyrical illustrations by Laura Carlin, this is an engaging and refreshingly jargon-free book, which would be ideal for any worried child. -- Emily Bearn * The Daily Telegraph *
One to watch out for. Subtitled A First Book of Mindfulness, this picture book, with its busy, stylish drawings, suggests how to respond to sad thoughts, so you do not get lost in them.
-- Nicolette Jones * The Sunday Times *
'The perfect introduction to mindfulness in young people.' * Angels and Urchins *
Featured in Children's Books Recommendations for April 2019?-? 'a beautiful introduction to mindfulness for young children...?it's a perfect way to teach children that worries are normal?' * Mini Travellers *
'A beautiful, gentle picture-book and guide to mindfulness encouraging children to accept anxious or angry thoughts as rain clouds that will gradually pass away, leaving clear skies behind.' * Metro *
30 Best Children's Books for 2019: 'a sophisticated attempt to get young children to engage with their emotions, presented simply.' * inews *
