Picture Books For Ages 3 To 7
One small boy. Six animal friends. Six big feelings, one book at a time, in the same quiet shape.
Most calm down books promise the feeling goes away. These promise something truer. It gets small enough to carry.
Every book gives one animal one feeling and keeps the same calm shape, so a child who knows one book already knows how the next one goes.
The big feeling arrives all at once, and it is bigger than Bodhi is. Nobody tells him to calm down. He breathes with the sangha instead, and by the last page the feeling is still there, and it is just a little bit smaller.
The lamp is out and the mat is warm and Bodhi is wide awake from his feet to the top of his head. Nobody tells him to go to sleep. The night gets used up the way nights do, one breath at a time, and the wiggle finally runs out.
Hurry up, said everybody, and Bodhi went as fast as he could go, and it was not fast enough. So he stopped in the middle of the path, and nobody told him to keep going. A story about the difference between being fast and being hurried. The day still gets done, one step at a time.
His sandal was wrong. His rice was wrong. Nothing was wrong, and everything was wrong. Nobody tells Bodhi to be nice, and by the time he lies down beside Cat in a warm square of sun he has worked out what the trouble really was. I am not bad, says Bodhi. I am tired.
Tomorrow the bell is Bodhi's to ring. What if he sleeps too long. What if he hits it wrong and it does not ring. His heart went thump, thump, thump, and tomorrow was not even here yet. Nobody tells Bodhi not to worry. A story about why rehearsal beats reassurance.
Something breaks, and it cannot be un-broken, and the sorry does not shake out the way the other feelings do. It stays all day. Then the whole sangha goes back for the pieces together, the bowl is mended, and the crack shows in gold.
All six are available now in paperback. The hardcover editions are still moving through IngramSpark, so those buttons are not live yet.
The same six friends turn up in every book. Each one is good at a different part of a hard feeling.
Turtle
Turtle takes his time.
Monkey
Monkey cannot sit still.
Cat
Cat naps.
Crane
Crane sees far.
Puppy
Puppy is sorry and still good.
Little Bodhi
Bodhi breathes.
The shape never changes, which is the point. A child who knows one book already knows how the next one goes.
About five hundred words, made to be read out loud in one sitting, at the end of the day.
It repeats three times, so a child can say it along with you by the second reading.
Two pages at the back on what that feeling actually is, and what helps when it arrives.
Walk Like Turtle. Look Like Crane. Rest Like Cat. Small physical things you can do the same evening.
No screens, no scolding, and no grown-ups anywhere in the story.
Square 8.5 by 8.5 inches, 38 pages, full color, for ages 3 to 7 and preschool through grade 2.
Join the Sangha to find out when Little Bodhi goes on more adventures.
Rights, school visits, review copies, or a note about one of the books.