I have recently become passionate about using age-appropriate ways to teach young children mindfulness as a way for children to have some inner peace and inner safety despite their outer life circumstances. Mindfulness, put simply, is awareness in the present moment (noticing thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, feelings, and the surrounding environment in the moment instead of getting caught up in the thoughts and worries of past and future). Although many people are familiar with this being very helpful for adults, this is also an excellent skill for children to learn too! Awareness is the foundation to all life experiences and skills. When children increase their awareness in the present moment, they can increase attentive skills, better regulate their feelings, make safe choices, and notice and attend others' feelings. When children notice others' feelings, beautiful things like empathy, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and appropriate assertiveness skills can begin to grow. Just think of a world where children could grow to carry around an awareness of their own inner peace and thus act in peaceful ways in a world that is sometimes anything but peaceful. That is a world I would want to live in and a world I would want to give to future generations.
Mindful Games for Kids is an engaging book of activities for children ages 4-8, teaching them how to use all the principles of mindfulness including calming themselves, focusing on the present, and being kinder to others. Dealing with big feelings can be hard, but it's easier when you practice listening to your body and staying in the present moment. 50 colorfully illustrated, imaginative exercises keep the fun coming while showing kids helpful techniques like deep breathing, visualization, meditation, and more. Many of these off-the-page games take 10 minutes or less, making it easy to practice the magic of mindfulness anytime, anywhere. Inside Mindful Games for Kids, you'll find: 50 fantastic games—Discover mindful games like My Big Bat Ears, Hearing My Breath, As Cool as a Snowflake, and Sing My Emotions—all created for kids ages 4-8. Imagination invitation—Explore activities themed around breath, senses, thoughts, emotions, and the body—most don't require supplies, just an imagination! Mindful together—Kids can play these mindful games alone or with other people (grown-ups are invited too!) —the supportive guidelines include ways for anyone to win. Kids can find a peaceful mind through fun and games—with Mindful Games for Kids!
Winner of the 2020 Crawford Award! Winner of the 2021 Hugo Award! A Hugo Award-Winning Series! A 2021 Locus Award Finalist A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist "Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful... The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR A 2020 ALA Booklist Top Ten SF/F Debut | A Book Riot Must-Read Fantasy of 2020 | A Paste Most Anticipated Novel of 2020 | A Library Journal Debut of the Month | A Buzzfeed Must-Read Fantasy Novel of Spring 2020 | A Washington Post Best SFF of the Year So Far Pick Named Book Riot's Best Book Cover of 2020 Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Library Journal | NYPL | Chicago Public Library | The Austen Chronicle | Autostraddle With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women. A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece. The Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entrypoint. Praise for The Empress of Salt and Fortune “An elegant gut-punch, a puzzle box that unwinds itself in its own way and in its own time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect. I didn't know I needed to read this until I did.”—Seanan McGuire "A tale of rebellion and fealty that feels both classic and fresh, The Empress of Salt and Fortune is elegantly told, strongly felt, and brimming with rich detail. An epic in miniature, beautifully realised."—Zen Cho "Nghi Vo's gracefully told debut . . . resides in the intimate margins of its (beautifully imagined) world's history, portraying how the marginalized may yet shape those narratives and harness the power of stories."—Indrapramit Das At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
ABOUT THIS BOOK My name is Kristina Sargent and I am an Early Childhood Mental Health Therapist in Cincinnati, Ohio. I enjoy working with young children and realize the importance of using books as a means to introduce social skills, identify feelings, and help children learn about their world. Buttons learns to be Brave is a story designed to help children develop empathy, the ability to see how someone else is feeling from the other’s perspective. Empathy is a crucial building block for the further development of appropriate social skills and healthy attachments with others. To develop empathy, children learn that others have their own thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes (as Buttons learns in the story about his friend Penny). Encouraging children to empathize with others by pointing out feelings and offering suggestions of ways to comfort, are great ways to help children develop this skill. The teacher cat in the story points out Buttons' friend's feelings and encourages him to empathize with her ("She looks sad Buttons, what can you do to help her feel better?"). Children also develop empathy as adults in their lives talk about feelings and empathize with their children. In the story, Buttons' grandmother validates Buttons' feelings and uses this as an opportunity to talk about different feelings and how everyone experiences them. Buttons' grandmother also empathizes with him by creating a loving ritual (secret goodbye high five) to repeat every time she leaves him to help him feel safe.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister Kate can somehow fight the leukemia that has palgued her since childhood.
Game of Thrones, one of the hottest series on television, leaves hundreds of critics divided on how "feminist" the show really is. Certainly the female characters, strong and weak, embody a variety of archetypes--widow queens, warrior women, damsels in distress, career women, priestesses, crones, mothers and maidens. However, the problem is that most of them play a single role without nuance--even the "strong women" have little to do besides strut about as one-note characters. This book analyzes the women and their portrayals one by one, along with their historical inspirations. Accompanying issues in television studies also appear, from the male gaze to depiction of race. How these characters are treated in the series and how they treat themselves becomes central, as many strip for the pleasure of men or are sacrificed as pawns. Some nude scenes or moments of male violence are fetishized and filmed to tantalize, while others show the women's trauma and attempt to identify with the scene's female perspective. The key is whether the characters break out of their traditional roles and become multidimensional.
From Amanda Lovelace, a poetry collection in four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three sections piece together the life of the author while the final section serves as a note to the reader. This moving book explores love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspiration. the princess saves herself in this one is the first book in the "women are some kind of magic" series.
"Swoon. Sigh. Beautiful, gorgeous love story. You renew my faith in true love, Katy Regnery. And a brilliant take off on the little mermaid. People are going to love this one." --Mia Sheridan, New York Times bestselling author of Archer's Voice "AMAZING ... especially if you're a "Little Mermaid" fan, which I totally am." -- Heidi McLaughlin, New York Times bestselling author From New York Times bestselling author Katy Regnery comes a new twist on a beloved fairytale. In this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, a fisherman's daughter from an Outer Banks island untouched by time, meets the son of the North Carolina governor at a fancy party where she is working. Laire, who wants more from life than her little island can offer, is swept away by wealthy, sophisticated Erik, who is, in turn, entranced by her naivete and charm. The two spend a whirlwind summer together that ends on the knife-point of heartbreak and forces them to go their separate ways. Years later, when fate finds them together once again, they will discover the terrifying depth of the secrets they kept from each other, and learn that shattered hearts can only be healed by a love that willfully refuses to die. ***** Don't Speak is part of the a modern fairytale collection, which includes six standalone, completely unrelated novels inspired by beloved fairy tales: The Vixen and the Vet (Beauty & the Beast) - available now Never Let You Go (Hansel & Gretel) - available now Ginger's Heart (Little Red Riding Hood) - available now Dark Sexy Knight (Camelot) - available now Don't Speak (The Little Mermaid) - available soon Swan Song (The Ugly Duckling) - available late-2017
