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Breath Friends Forever: A Mindfulness Story for Kids by Kids
From the creators of the hugely successful Master of Mindfulness , this charming children’s book for readers ages 4 to 7 tells the story of Nessa and Leo’s friendship, and how mindfulness helps them deal with strong emotions such as fear, shyness, and anger. In Breath Friends Forever , best friends Nessa and Leo share their daily struggles—such as going to the doctor or being told “no” by their parents—as well as powerful mindfulness tips for dealing with big feelings like fear and frustration. Written and illustrated by a diverse group of kindergarten and fourth graders from Reach Academy in Oakland, California and designed by Angelina Manriquez, this fun and engaging book helps young readers learn how to be present in the moment and manage stress in their daily lives. Through story and images, children will learn the shark fin technique —a powerful and effective tool for fighting stress—as well as the thumb technique , which will help them deal with moments of extreme stress or anger in the moment, when they may not have a lot of time to react or process things. Kids will also learn important emotion regulation skills that will help them thrive, well on into their adult years. Early childhood is a critical time for brain development, and learning skills for managing emotions and stress early on can set kids up for a lifetime of success. Evidence now shows that age-appropriate mindfulness practices support brain development in ways that promote positive social and emotional learning, increase school readiness, improve self-esteem, and can even help manage behavior issues. In addition to delighting children, this fun and unique book is a great resource for parents, teachers, early childhood educators, mental health professionals, and health care providers who use mindfulness practices with younger children.
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
40 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2018
627 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Grossman
2 books7 followers Laurie Grossman has over 40 years experience in working in non-profits and creating programs to help improve the lives of people living in underserved communities. Laurie’s passion, energy, creativity and sense of justice have enabled her to imagine innovative methods to address problems and she has helped schools look at how to serve their students in totally new ways. Laurie brings her warmth, enthusiasm, humor and insight into each project. In the last 30 years she has created two initiatives in schools impacting tens of thousands of children and adults. Both were looked at skeptically in the beginning, and both continue to thrive. Both serve low-income and affluent communities.
In 1992 Laurie was recruited by Park Day School, a North Oakland independent school, to raise money for the school. Having spent her career working with under served communities, she initially refused the position. However, once she witnessed the superb education offered to Park’s students, she made a bargain with the board. She would raise funds if they allowed her to share Park’s teaching and resources with Oakland’s low-income public schools. Initially 10% of her job, Laurie created a full-time Community Outreach position. She devised a myriad of public/private partnerships with public schools some of which included service learning, professional development, book drives, literacy programs, and anti-bullying campaigns. Students from both schools benefitted from the interactions and teachers from both schools learned from each other. In addition to working with public schools, Laurie offered several workshops for private schools to encourage them to join in the effort in support of public schools. Park Day School’s public/private partnership program is one of the largest in the country, and Tom Little, the director of the school was an important spokesperson for this important movement.
At Park Day School in 2007, as a method to address the turmoil faced by many students in public schools, Laurie cofounded The Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education, now known as Mindful Schools. At launching, little did she know how well the program would serve all students and their teachers, or how much she would love teaching mindfulness to children, or that the program would help foster an international movement to bring mindfulness into schools. Mindful Schools has taught hundreds of thousands of teachers and students.
Laurie believes that mindfulness is vital for social justice and educational equity and left Mindful Schools at the end of 2011 in order to focus on bringing mindfulness into a wide variety of communities that serve low-income seniors, troubled students, schools & non-profits. During that time she worked with 5th graders and wrote and a kids’ book called Master of Mindfulness How To Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress. New Harbinger published it in 2016. Breath Friends Forever, a book Laurie wrote with Angelina Alvarez, (Co author of MOM) and 4th graders in East Oakland was released in September, 2017.
In 2014 Laurie was recruited by Inner Explorer to be their Director of Program Development and Outreach. With exuberance and delight, Laurie joined the IE team, almost incredulous that her colleagues figured out a way to spread mindfulness to all schools and to students and teachers simultaneously easily, effectively, sustainably and with scalability. As the Director of Social Justice and Educational Equity for Inner Explorer, she is as passionate as ever about spreading mindfulness as far and wide as possible.
In 1992 Laurie was recruited by Park Day School, a North Oakland independent school, to raise money for the school. Having spent her career working with under served communities, she initially refused the position. However, once she witnessed the superb education offered to Park’s students, she made a bargain with the board. She would raise funds if they allowed her to share Park’s teaching and resources with Oakland’s low-income public schools. Initially 10% of her job, Laurie created a full-time Community Outreach position. She devised a myriad of public/private partnerships with public schools some of which included service learning, professional development, book drives, literacy programs, and anti-bullying campaigns. Students from both schools benefitted from the interactions and teachers from both schools learned from each other. In addition to working with public schools, Laurie offered several workshops for private schools to encourage them to join in the effort in support of public schools. Park Day School’s public/private partnership program is one of the largest in the country, and Tom Little, the director of the school was an important spokesperson for this important movement.
At Park Day School in 2007, as a method to address the turmoil faced by many students in public schools, Laurie cofounded The Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education, now known as Mindful Schools. At launching, little did she know how well the program would serve all students and their teachers, or how much she would love teaching mindfulness to children, or that the program would help foster an international movement to bring mindfulness into schools. Mindful Schools has taught hundreds of thousands of teachers and students.
Laurie believes that mindfulness is vital for social justice and educational equity and left Mindful Schools at the end of 2011 in order to focus on bringing mindfulness into a wide variety of communities that serve low-income seniors, troubled students, schools & non-profits. During that time she worked with 5th graders and wrote and a kids’ book called Master of Mindfulness How To Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress. New Harbinger published it in 2016. Breath Friends Forever, a book Laurie wrote with Angelina Alvarez, (Co author of MOM) and 4th graders in East Oakland was released in September, 2017.
In 2014 Laurie was recruited by Inner Explorer to be their Director of Program Development and Outreach. With exuberance and delight, Laurie joined the IE team, almost incredulous that her colleagues figured out a way to spread mindfulness to all schools and to students and teachers simultaneously easily, effectively, sustainably and with scalability. As the Director of Social Justice and Educational Equity for Inner Explorer, she is as passionate as ever about spreading mindfulness as far and wide as possible.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 17, 2019
By kids, for kids about mindfulness and meditation. It definitely feels like it is by kids, in both the good ways and the bad. Well-intentioned, but not completely successful.
August 27, 2018
I received this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
This is a neat introduction to anger and frustration management for kids. However, I'm not sure how effective it would be if others didn't respect or support the time a kid needs to cool down.
This is a neat introduction to anger and frustration management for kids. However, I'm not sure how effective it would be if others didn't respect or support the time a kid needs to cool down.
January 10, 2019
Truly one of the best things about this book, Breath Friends Forever: A Mindfulness Book for Kids by Kids, and its predecessor, Master of Mindfulness: How to Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress, is that it is truly for kids by kids. The voices are clear and strong and young. This simple, sweet story, illustrated with a creative collage of cartoon characters and real life photos, offers various ways to remind us to practice mindfulness whenever needed. The hand gestures, the breathing, the getting in touch with inner peace all combine to offer easy-to-follow instructions for calming down during times of big emotions. The nicely written story offers good factual data on how deep breathing affects and effects the body, mind and energy. This mid-grade book respects the curiosity and personage of the older child. The main message is that a friend is the greatest gift: both to give and to receive.
This is a fabulous authentically voiced mindfulness book for mid-grades. I highly recommend this book. It should be in homes, libraries, schools, therapist offices etc. It is not only a fun, mindful story, but it also serve an important purpose as a book for children to help bolster their self-control, inner peace and resiliency.
Eve Costarelli
Thank you to Laurie Grossman for sending me this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
For more information about accessible mindfulness/yoga/dance, please visit alwaysbedancing dot com
This is a fabulous authentically voiced mindfulness book for mid-grades. I highly recommend this book. It should be in homes, libraries, schools, therapist offices etc. It is not only a fun, mindful story, but it also serve an important purpose as a book for children to help bolster their self-control, inner peace and resiliency.
Eve Costarelli
Thank you to Laurie Grossman for sending me this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
For more information about accessible mindfulness/yoga/dance, please visit alwaysbedancing dot com
November 17, 2018
Two friends who share the same birthday, but one is always calm, and the other is always frustrated. Together they talk about their feelings, and discover what it takes to be even better friends. An interesting look at being mindful of one's emotions, and taking steps to control the negative.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews