New Yoga & Mindfulness Books for Kids

Teach kids about yoga and mindfulness with these children's books and resources for families. I have been interested in yoga and mindfulness for years, and my daughter has loved trying out yoga moves since she was able to walk. In recent years, we have been putting a big focus on mindfulness and breathing techniques to help her deal with big emotions. So since the quarantine started, we have been practicing yoga and mindfulness every day through Cosmic Kids Yoga. So I was thrilled to receive these new kids books about yoga and mindfulness to help with our new practice.

The Girl and the Cathedral

Teach kids about Notre Dame with this children's book about hope.I have always been fascinated by art and architecture from times gone past. I love that I live in a city that has older architecture on display. But I have always dreamt of someday traveling to Europe to see some of the incredible art and architecture that is even older. One of the most well known architectural marvels in Europe not only contains breathtaking sights, but also means a lot to people all over the world – the Notre Dame Cathedral. I remember watching the horrible fire there years ago, and being deeply saddened by the loss of such a treasure. So I was thrilled when we were given the opportunity to check out this beautiful children’s book about Notre Dame, and the power of hope and community.

Book Themed Candles for the Bookworm in Your Life

These book themed candles make the perfect gift for bookworms! Picture your favorite reading spot. What makes it special? What helps you settle in for an afternoon of relaxing and reading? Today I am thrilled to share a list of amazing book themed candles that will transport you to your favorite reading nook, or even to your favorite literary places. These make great gifts for bookworms too!

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When Pencil Met the Markers

Create some fun artwork inspired by the book We love books that encourage us to think outside the lines and create new artwork. So we were really excited to read the sequel to one of our favorite books about art supplies from last year. And we were not disappointed! This children’s book about art teaches an important lesson about making mistakes, through adorable characters and awesome artwork.

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When Pencil Met The Markers was written by Karen Kilpatrick and Luis O. Ramos, Jr. and illustrated by German Blanco. This sequel to When Pencil Met Eraser introduces readers to the Markers – a box of markers who love to color. But unlike the other markers who like to color in the lines, Purple likes to color everywhere! This causes a bit of trouble with the other markers who think Purple makes too many mistakes. But when Purple meets Pencil and Eraser, he learns that messes and mistakes can easily be turned into something new and beautiful.

There are no mistakes in life. Just embellishment opportunities. – Frank, Trading Spaces

The illustrations that are paired with the story are large and colorful, featuring lots of artwork that will inspire kids to get drawing themselves. And the important message that any mistakes can be turned into something beautiful is a great one for kids to learn in both art and in life.

Related Post: Children’s Books about Art Supplies

Seeing Things Differently

This is a spin on an art project that we have done in the past, that ties in with the story. My daughter drew shapes on a piece of paper in markers, and then asked me to create something out of them. I turned her zig zag line into a mountain range with a sky, and a mountain climber.

 

Next, she asked me to create a shape with markers. Then she used a pencil and markers to create her own picture.

It was really fun to challenge each other to create something out of something else. And it was really interesting to see how we each saw something different on the paper. You can do this activity one on one, or have a group of kids create a bunch of shapes and swap them.

Related Post: Classic Art Books for Kids

Cooperative Art

Exploring Your True Self with Crayola!

Celebrate diversity and identity with Crayola's new Color of the World crayons and some great children's books!I love Crayola products. It may be the teacher in me, but I just love opening up a new box of crayons or colored pencils. I just see a box full of unlimited possibilities. So I was thrilled when we had the chance to check out Crayola’s new Colors of the World crayons and participate in their campaign to share our True Selfies! This also gave us an opportunity to enjoy some children’s books about being true to yourself.

New Interactive Board Books

Encourage young readers with these interactive board books!Interactive books are a great way to get kids interested in reading. For little ones, the ability to touch, move, and interact with the story and the physical book can help to keep their interest and involve them in the read aloud process. This list of new interactive board books includes lots of colorful and funny books that little readers will enjoy.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I received copies of these books in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Nita’s Day

Written by Kathy MacMillan and illustrated by Sara Brezzi

This sequel to Nita’s First Signs introduces kids to more ASL signs through a cute story and colorful illustrations. Each page follows Nita and her parents as they go about their daily life. The tabs along the edge of the book highlight the signs used on each page. Pulling the tab out of the book uncovers illustrated instructions for making the sign. Each of the signs in this book can be used every day, improving the chances that kids will remember them.

Related Post: Teaching Sign Language to Kids with Nita’s First Signs

Farm Block

Written by Christopher Franceschelli and illustrated by Peskimo

This large board book explores life on the farm through easy to read text and fold out illustrations. The strong pages feature shaped edges and cut outs to engage the reader and draw them from one part of farm life to the next. This book is full of information for kids about farm life, and they will love finding new things in the fold out illustrations every time they read it.

Disney Block

Written by Peskimo

This big board book uses adorable illustrations, shaped pages and quotes to introduce kids to Disney movies. Each two page spread features part of a movie quote and familiar illustrated scenes from popular animated Disney movies. We loved exploring some of our favorite Disney movies. But our favorite parts were the hidden Disney “Easter eggs” hidden throughout the book. Each two page spread includes at least one hidden Mickey, and the final two page spread includes so many hidden movie references, that I’m still not sure we got them all!

Related Post: Interactive Board Books for Kids

Children’s Books about Diversity

Celebrate what makes us similar and what makes us different in these children's books about diversity. Celebrating diversity is always important, but it is even more important right now. It is crucial that we teach kids about celebrating differences as well as recognizing the similarities between us. Today I’m happy to share a group of new children’s books about diversity that can help you tackle these subjects with kids of all ages.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I received copies of these books in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lulu the One and Only

Written by Lynnette Mawhinney and illustrated by Jennie Poh

This brightly colored book introduces the reader to a young girl named Luliwa Lovington, who comes from a mixed race family. She struggles with the question “What are you?” that she and her brother face all the time. She talks to her brother about the question and he tells her his secret for handling it. The story addresses a difficult situation that children of mixed race families often face. The adorable illustrations highlight the love between Lulu and her family, and the inner strength and confidence that she gains by the end of the book.

Related Post: Celebrating Families of All Kinds

If You Come to Earth

Written by Sophie Blackall

This book follows a letter written by a young girl to a visitor from outer space. She writes a guide introducing them to all that the earth has to offer. From different homes and families, to different bodies and jobs, the text celebrates all of the differences among us. The illustrations are detailed and thoughtful, highlighting all of the things that make this planet a wonderful place to live. The back of the book includes a letter from the author explaining how the idea behind the book came about, the many people depicted throughout it’s pages, and how important it is that we protect our planet and each other.

The Word for Friend

Written by Aidan Cassie

This sweet book follows Kemala the pangolin as she heads to a new school in a new country. But when she gets there, none of the other kids speak the same language. The story shows how she struggles to fit in, until Ana the anteater reaches out and tries to bridge the language barrier. Together, they are able to teach one another new things, and forge a friendship. The illustrations feature adorable animals, and incredibly detailed puppets that Kemala creates. The story celebrates the universal language of friendship and celebrating the things that we can learn from one another.

The Same But Different Too

Written by Karl Newson and illustrated by Kate HIndley

This rhyming book explores the similarities and differences between us through simple opposites. The large text introduces opposing concepts that kids will recognize, such as cold and hot, and gentle and rough. The accompanying illustrations feature a diverse group of sweet looking children and a wide variety of animal characters. Kids will love the way that the kids interact with the animals and compare themselves to them, as well as the sweet and funny ending to the story.

Common Threads: Adam’s Day in the Market

President Books for Kids: Get Kids Interested in the Election

Get kids interested in the election with these fun president books for kids! #electionforkids #kidsbooks #presidentbooksThe election will be here before you know it. It will offer lots of opportunities to talk to kids about presidents, what they do, and the ones who have come before. So we are thrilled to share these fun president books for kids. They may inspire kids to raise their own voices and change the world on their own. Plus, we paired them with a fun writing activity to get kids thinking about what they want in a president.

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Future President

Written by Lori Alexander and illustrated by Allison Black

This adorable board book compares the actions and the responsibilities of the President with the actions of babies to show that they could someday be President too. The colorful illustrations feature a diverse cast of babies wearing adorable USA themed clothing. Each image shows a baby doing the same things that Presidents do, but in their own cute way. The back of the book includes fun facts about the President and the jobs and responsibilities of the office in text that young kids can understand.

Sofia Valdez, Future Prez

Children’s Books about Bugs

Teach kids about different types of insects with these fun children's books about bugs! #bugbooks #booksaboutbugs #insectsThe bugs are back! My daughter has started paying more attention to the bugs around us this year, so we are spending more time reading about them. This list of children’s books about bugs explores a variety of insects, encouraging kids to take a second look at the miraculous creatures around them.

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I received copies of these books in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Mae the Mayfly

Written by Denise Brennan-Nelson and illustrated by Florence Weiser

This beautifully illustrated story follows Mae, a little mayfly who is born on the bank of a river and learns that she has one whole day to experience the world. The rhyming text follows her on her journey, facing scary situations, and learning to focus on all the beautiful sights to see in the world. The back of the book includes tips on practicing mindfulness, as well as interesting facts about mayflies.

Kaia and the Bees

Written by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Angela Dominguez

This story introduces readers to a young girl named Kaia who is very brave. But she is afraid of bees. This is a big problem for Kaia, since her parents are beekeepers. Her parents explain the importance of honeybees to her, and she shares that knowledge with the people around her. Eventually she heads up to see the bees with her dad, and then helps her parents to harvest the honey. Along the way, she learns the importance of bees, and becomes more open to helping them. The illustrations are bright and colorful and show the process of caring for bees and harvesting the honey.

Related Post: Children’s Books about Bees

Soar High, Dragonfly!

Written by Sheri Mabry Bestor and illustrated by Jonny Lambert

This book introduces kids to the life of dragonflies. There are two different texts throughout the book. The larger text is simple and lyrical, using lots of sounds and descriptions to bring kids into the world of dragonflies. At the bottom of some pages, there is smaller text that is packed with interesting facts about dragonflies, their eggs, their babies, and their lives. The illustrations are vibrant and colorful, using lots of textures and colors. They also feature large flowers and plants to show the relative size of dragonflies to the world around them.

Fly, Firefly!

Written by Shana Keller and illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki

This story follows the adventures of one firefly, who finds himself blown out to sea by a gust of wind. Anxious to find his way home, he dives into the sea, mistaking the bioluminescence on the water for other fireflies. Luckily, two humans are standing on shore and help him find his way back to his family. The illustrations are beautiful with dark backgrounds that bring the brilliance of the fireflies and the bioluminescence to the forefront.

Related Post: More Children’s Books about Bugs

Teaching Kids to Deal with Multiple Emotions

This picture book about emotions, and emotional intelligence activities, teach kids to handle two emotions at once. Emotions can be a difficult thing to understand – no matter what age you are. We teach kids about feelings early on, but we often teach them in very simple terms. Kids can recognize early on if they are happy, sad, or angry. But what about the times that they feel more than one thing at once? Today I am sharing a fun picture book about emotions that introduces kids to the possibility of feeling multiple things at once.

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I’m Happy-Sad Today was written by Lory Britain and illustrated by Matthew Rivera. This colorful book follows a young girl as she explains many of the situations in her life that have caused her to feel more than one emotion at once. Whether she is both excited and scared, or sad and mad, she recognizes that it is possible to feel many things at the same time. The situations she faces are ones that most kids will also face, making it easier to relate to the story.

Emotion Blocks

I created these printable emotions blocks to use while we explored conflicting emotions. You can download and print your own here. Fold along the lines and create a cube shape, tucking in the tabs and using glue or tape to attach them.

Check out this printable Calm Down Kit for Kids!

New Words

The little girl in the story combines her emotions to create new words. This was perhaps my daughter’s favorite part of the story. We rolled the cubes and tried to come up with new words to combine the emotions that appeared on top. We used a wipe off board and markers to mix the words up and try new combinations. This has given us a new vocabulary for discussing how we are feeling when we have mixed up emotions.

Emotions Dance

Another fun activity from the story that we brought to life was the emotions dance. In the story, the young girl likes to act out her emotions through dance. We are always happy for any excuse to dance and move, so we used our cubes to suggest emotions to dance out. This is a good way to get moving, and think about how we express our feelings through movement.

Related Post: Teach Kids about Feelings with the Moodsters

Creating Two Pictures