A Child’s Guide to Coping with their Feelings

Contains: slime-donuts, monster-yoga and a big calming dose of “Ahhh”

Pickle the little monster is moving house and starting a new school, and it’s giving them a yucky feeling in their tummy. Pickle has tried all sorts of things to feel better, but nothing seems to work until they try mindfulness. Follow along on a fun adventure as Pickle learns all sorts of ways to be mindful, from monster hugs and meditation to cloud watching and making a jar of memories. Discover how thinking about how you feel from head to toe and focusing on being present can make you go “Ahhh”. Are you ready to be in the moment too?

A Little Monster’s Guide to Mindfulness is a fun, illustrated story for children aged 4-7 to introduce them to mindfulness and provide them with simple techniques they can employ when feeling anxious.

We know that children’s mental health has been suffering recently and it’s never too early to introduce them to methods that can help them recognise and understand their feelings, as well as providing life skills like self-control. These approaches can become powerful tools that will encourage your child to manage and ease feelings of worry in order to feel calmer, resilient and more confident.

Parenting Daily Editor Review

With the weather being pretty awful outside my daughter and I were looking for an activity we do whilst snuggled up on the sofa today, so I reached for this book and we were not disappointed! My daughter is 6 and the book is written in such an engaging way, with lots of fun illustrations to keep us interested. My daughter was also able to read most of the book herself, which was brilliant, and she really laughed out loud at some of the monster's comments.   The activities in the books were really lovely. We were eased in with a simple meditation breathing activity, which my daughter loved. There are also so many great ideas to incorporate mindfulness into other day-to-day activities, like eating, walking and exercising. One particularly good idea was for using mindfulness at bedtime, I will certainly be giving this a go when my children are struggling to switch off and settle down to sleep.  I think my favourite activity from the book was setting a timer for 3 minutes and giving someone as many compliments as you can in that time. We are currently at the start of the summer holidays here and my two children are learning how to be together again all day every day (after being used to having school hours and activities), so I think they could use a bit of a reminder that they do actually like each other!   We really enjoyed this book and it will certainly be one we will keep dipping in and out of over time to use the ideas and keep trying to build a more mindful way of living. 

Emily Snape is a children's author and illustrator living in London. Her work has appeared online, on television, in shops and even on buses! She loves coffee and notebooks, and has three cheeky children who keep her on her toes and give her lots of inspiration for stories. You can find out her latest publishing news on Instagram at @emily_snape_illustrator

Book by Emily Snape

You can buy the book here