100 Books Like Zen Shorts

I Am Peace is part of a wonderful series by this well-known team. The series explores topics such as compassion, empathy, resilience, and what it is to be a feeling human being. I Am Peace is about a child (gender not identified) who worries about the past and future and learns how to comfort and ground themselves by noticing the here and now, breathing evenly, and practicing kindness toward themselves and others. The simple, sparse text expresses these rather deep ideas in ways that all children can understand: “I can watch my worries gently pop and disappear. I let things go"; “I can hug a tree and thank it for its beauty and strength.” The back matter features a discussion of mindfulness and a guided meditation.

Alphabreaths is brilliant. It’s a colorful alphabet book and a mindfulness book in one. Clinical psychologist Christopher Willard teamed up with family therapist Daniel Rechtsschaffen and illustrator Holly Clifton-Brown to create mindful activities from A to Z. Kids will want to try out these breath and mindfulness techniques because they are so simple, and the illustrations so inviting. You can do each one without any prior understanding of mindfulness or breath techniques.

My favorite pages include: “Question Breath. As you breathe in, ask yourself how you are feeling. As you breathe out, answer.”

“Superhero Breathe. Breathe in and imagine you are a superhero. Breathe out and imagine how you will help someone.”

“Wish Breath. Breathe in and make a happy wish for yourself. Breathe out and send a happy wish to someone else.”

I’m crazy about Clifton-Brown’s illustrations. Her characters express innocence, wonder, and serenity. Her palette is soft yet… show more.

This book is a favorite among many parents who can relate!

This book beautifully speaks to children who feel different or left out, and as we know, that's quite a common experience. It shows the courage it takes to share your story and the power of finding connection.

I admire how it encourages kids to embrace what makes them unique and see that their differences are what make them special.

Sweety is a naked mole rat who is just…different. She’s into “weird” things, is sometimes too intense and loud, and wants desperately to find a friend. Basically, Sweety is me. I am Sweety. And I know that other kids who feel like they don’t fit in will love watching Sweety love herself and ultimately find the perfect friend. 

I love this book for several reasons, not the least being the feeling of nostalgia I get just from the illustrations. With one look at the Bear family on the cover, I am transported back to hiding under the covers to read after lights out, and the storyline brings back memories of all the summer fun with our church youth group.

The author doesn’t dance around the issue of lying—and that takes me back to my childhood, as well; we did not tap-dance around the truth! As a person of faith, I also appreciate that the text uses some wisdom scripture from Psalms as an anchor. 

It's such a sweet story about being yourself.

Bunnybear looks like a bear on the outside but feels like a bunny on the inside. But soon he questions if his feelings are valid. Then he meets another and finds out that he isn't the only one that feels this way and forms a wonderful friendship with Grizzlybun. The illustrations are adorable!

Lucy, the bear, is practicing her twirls in the forest when she notices she is being watched, by a boy who squeaks! Lucy thinks he is “the cutest thing in the world!” and begs her mother to let her keep him. Her mother tells her that “children make terrible pets!” but eventually relents. Lucy and Squeak do everything together but the boy is practically impossible to potty-train, ruins the furniture, makes terrible messes, and then…he disappears! When Lucy finally finds him, she realizes that some creatures make terrible pets. Then again, perhaps a…? 

Peter Brown’s colour drawings are cute and funny; this book definitely made me laugh out loud. What an interesting change of perspective about humans and pets! 

I liked the surprise ending too.

I love to begin baking activities with children with a good book to get them excited and thinking ahead about our fun in the kitchen. Blueberries for Sal does exactly that!

I used to read this book to my kids before heading to a local farm to go blueberry or strawberry-picking in the summer months. Once home, we gathered our delectable harvest and baked a delicious berry crumble or cobbler! Extend the learning to different seasons by going apple-picking in the fall and making homemade apple pie, preserves, and applesauce.

Blueberries for Sal is a great story for teaching the whole process of farm-to-table. This book is also good for: learning about the seasons and the seasonality of produce; animal hibernation in winter; where we get blueberries (wild vs. farmed); the process of canning fruit; and mothers and their young.

You’ve probably read Winnie the Pooh, either as a child or to a child. But I bet you don’t know about the real bear who inspired one of the most famous characters in children’s literature. Told as an origin story within a bedtime story, this bestselling and award-winning illustrated biography ends with wonderful photos of all the characters: the real Winnie (a girl!), the vet who rescued her, the soldiers who cared for her, the boy who famously befriended her, and the author who immortalized the beloved bear. Best of all, Finding Winnie is a success at proving one of the book’s themes—sometimes the very best stories are true stories.

A dreamlike book about an all-alone bear who befriends a balloon. When the little bear accidentally punctures his new friend, he blames himself. And now the poor thing is not only utterly alone, but is overcome with sadness and self-blame. The delicacy with which this story treats the difficult topics of shame and self-blame is marvelous. Making a bad situation worse by blaming it on yourself is just so relevant to all of our lives, no matter how young we are and this book really captures that in an elemental way. The tender, emotive illustrations are a perfect complement to the delicate and penetrating text.