Give Peace a Chance! I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours."

Hundreds of years before, poet William Wordsworth described the way we all feel sometimes. Even children can feel overwhelmed with the "too much" and "too many" of things.

There are times when I worry about what might happen next and what happened before.

Everyone, even kids, have times when they have minds that are too busy, too full of everything. Susan Verdes's I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness (Abrams Books, 2017) speaks to those moments when children need to stop and re-balance themselves.

I give myself a moment.

I tell myself, it's all right.

To just be in the Here and Now is the premise of Verde's little book, lovingly illustrated by the notable Peter H. Reynolds, whose art makes sense of the "mindfulness" concept of just breathing and being for that moment, and being thankful for it. Verde's text and Reynolds' peaceful and lovely illustrations, appropriately "centered" on the page, provide the moment of balance, like a tree, that everyone needs. Says Kirkus Reviews, "A guided meditation exercise offers interactive opportunities for readers to create their own mindful time. A gentle, helpful tool for cultivating kid mindfulness."

Share this one with Verde's and Reynolds' earlier I Am Yoga.