Meditation For Children by Shelley Wilson - Blog Tour Review

When Anne Cater of Random Things Tours sent an email asking if anyone would be interested in a book on mindfulness for children, I knew I had to take part. I have a very excitable six year old and though he loves yoga as a calming technique, exploring other options is always interesting. I'm extremely happy I did! 

Meditation For Children

Author and meditation tutor Shelley Wilson takes you on a magical journey to a calm and happy place that you and your child will love.

Children of all ages can learn and enjoy the benefits of meditation.

Designed to help access creative abilities through relaxation and imagination, these stories help develop the necessary tools needed at a young age for lifelong healthy habits of managing stress and anxiety while also improving learning skills.

Meditation for Children is a simple way to introduce children to mindfulness through guided visualisation. Includes a handy reference guide and instructions.

My Review

I'll start off by saying I absolutely loved this book, so how much of this will be "review" and how much will be "gushing" will be interesting to see! 

The book begins with some advice and tips, setting expectations for the techniques used and how to achieve them. Though these are, I'd imagine, aimed at parents, my six year old found it easy to read and grasped the concept of what the book was about. I think this is masterfully done as though he understood, I also didn't feel like it had been "child proofed" in any way. 

The book includes ten stories which all are the perfect length to keep anyone engaged throughout, even a younger child. Each story is accompanied by beautiful illustrations which we spent time looking at before reading each story. I like how it encourages a habit of reading a story before bed each night, we already have this in practice and have for both children from birth. The way we used the stories was to read them after the main bedtime story, to settle down and concentrate on the words and close his eyes (which is why we looked at the pictures first) and to slow ourselves down ready for a good sleep. 

Even reading the stories and following the guidance, I felt myself calming and my heartbeat and being slowing down and I felt lighter once I'd finished each time. I've never really meditated myself before, not in a concentrated effort any way and I feel this book has inspired even me as an adult to look into mindfulness for myself as well as the children. As a parent, you don't always get time to bring yourself that calm that you may need to get through the day, but as this book shows, it can take literally only a coupe of minutes to achieve. 

Overall an absolutely amazing book and one I'm very glad to have read. We will be reading the stories again and again in the future. 

I gave this book five stars.

About The Author

Shelley Wilson is an English author of motivational self-help titles and young adult fantasy fiction. 

Her sensible side writes non-fiction books to inspire you to be the best you can be, and her cheeky and playful side writes young adult fiction to remind you to nurture that inner teen.

Shelley is a single mum of three, has a crazy black cat called Luna and is obsessed with vampires, Tudor history, and exploring castles. 

She's tall (5ft 10inches) which seems to surprise people when they meet her. She often hears, "you're much taller than your profile picture!" 

Find her on twitter www.twitter.com/ShelleyWilson72
or Facebook www.facebook.com/FantasyAuthorSLWilson 

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Toletis by Rafa Ruiz - Blog Tour Review

Today I am joining the blog tour Toletis by Rafa Ruiz and sharing my review of this lovely book.

Toletis

The trees are disappearing and the adults don't care. Toletis, his dog Amenophis and friends Claudia and Tutan are on a mission to turn their little valley town, set deep in the mountains, lusciously green again. The odds are stacked against them. Can they succeed ...with some very unusual help? A deep appreciation for nature, art, language, music, friendship, family, the passing of time, old age, loneliness, and the importance of sitting still and reflecting on life, pervade this exquisite story. A must read for 7 to 107 year olds!

My Review

I'll start my review as I have been recently and discussing just how lovely the cover is. It's very distinctive and the colour alone would catch your eye. The illustrations throughout match that of the cover and are all beautifully coloured and joyful to look at. Also I can honestly say I don't think I've ever read a children's book that has such gorgeous end papers and french flaps! Really gorgeous at both the front and back of the book.

Onto the story! Toletis is beautifully written and well thought out, the story follows through the seasons and different activities throughout the year. I loved how each chapter contained a different activity or occurrence and that each one had some sort of gentle message to help make the world a better place for everyone.

The character Toletis is so charming. Sometimes in children's books, as they are to entertain children, the characters can be.....not so entertaining to adults. However that isn't the case in Toletis and I found him to be thoughtful and a good friend to both his real life friends and to nature. Oh and of course his dog too! His relationship with the mist was playful and helped move you through the story.

The language used throughout is lyrical and easy enough for the younger readers, but without talking down to them and it gives them some talking points to ask and discuss if they want. I think the translator has done a wonderful job capturing the magic of the story.

I love how the author has captured how easy it is for a child to cross the boundary between reality and imagination, it gives the book a magical realism feel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall I gave this book 5 stars.

About The Author

Rafa Ruiz is a journalist and author who has a staunch commitment to culture, art and the environment. He spent 25 years at Spanish newspaper El País and is a partner-founder of the Press Association for Environmental Information (APIA). He has written numerous children’s books, and he codirects the Mad is Mad art gallery in Madrid which gives space to up-and-coming artists. He is one of the partner-founders of the Press Association for Environmental Information (APIA).

The Illustrator

Elena Hormiga is an illustrator with a sense of humour. She studied and worked as an engineer and later turned to illustration.

The Translator

Ben Dawlatly took an MA in Hispanic Studies and Translation Theory at UCL. He translates both technical and literary texts. However, his real calling is in fiction and poetry.

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