NEW Breathe Like a Bear Board Book for Random House/Rodale Kids
I’m so excited to share a brand new board book I illustrated, a companion to Breathe Like a Bear: 30 Mindfulness Moments for Kids, which I illustrated a couple of years ago. This one is also called Breathe Like a Bear, but it’s the first in a series of “Mindfulness Moments for Kids” board books being published by Random House/Rodale Kids and written by the wonderful Kira Willey. These are books for the littlest kids, each a story that builds off of one of the exercises in the original Breathe Like a Bear. Two of the books have just been released, and a third will be out in February!
The story follows a little bear who is searching for a nice warm place to hibernate for the winter. She walks through snowfall to find a cozy cave, and after encountering a few other animals taking shelter there she joins a group of bears just settling down for their long winter’s rest.
Throughout the story she pauses to “Beathe in slooowly, then let it all out,” creating a rhythm of relaxation for little people to engage in. It would be a great book for getting kids ready for bed, gradually winding them down with slow breathing, until they’re calm and relaxed and ready for sleep, or for any other time a child needs to find their inner peace. I can’t wait to read it to my own little angels!
This was such a fun book to work on, not only because it was neat to create a little visual narrative that expanded on one of the original BLAB exercises, but also becuase Kira Willey’s text is lovely and gentle, and the art director Jan Gerardi is so positive and easy to work with. I enjoyed creating a snowy landscape for the beginning of the story, and then contrasting that with the warm earthy interior of the cave, and as always I love drawing lots of cute animals.
The book is on sale now in bookstores and online, if you’d like to pick it up on Amazon it’s here on the US site, and here on Amazon UK. Next month I’ll tell you about the second book in the series, Listen Like an Elephant. Thanks for reading!
