A guide to the history, methods, and benefits of mindfulness and meditation, which a growing body of research shows can change brains in ways that reduce stress and increase happiness. Read full book review >

This how-to board book coaches toddlers on the methodology of deep breathing. Read full book review >

Celebrations the world over involve parades, foods, traditional clothing, masks, songs, and games. Read full book review >

An earnest introduction to a secular mindfulness practice. Read full book review >

This primer on visualization techniques uses a monkey and an elephant to introduce children to mindfulness and meditation. Read full book review >

A saucy version of the traditional tale of the fisherman and his wife, set in the Louisiana bayou. Read full book review >

Sandwiched between opening and closing comments from the Dalai Lama, this spiritual biography of the Buddha imparts the major events of Siddhartha's journey to enlightenment with a combination of stylized prose—"At a time when the oldest Bodhi trees in Asia were still in youthful bloom, Queen Maya had a dream"—and equally stylized images of the large-eyed, long-eared holy man surrounded by silver beaded spirals and lotus flowers. Not so grand, nor so rich in detail, as Demi's version (1996), this still makes a suitable brief introduction to the origins, ideals and spirit of Buddhism. (sideways format, historical afterword) (Picture book/biography. 8-10)Read full book review >

A solid and informative entry in the Newsmakers Biographies series. Almost from birth Aung San Suu Kyi was involved in the political movement to free Burma from first the British and later from a series of corrupt and repressive regimes. Her father, a general in the Burmese army during WW II, was a prime mover in the struggle to free his country from the British and had just about come to terms with them when he was brutally assassinated. Having lost both her father and any hope of freedom, Suu Kyi resolved to carry on in his place. Stewart covers Suu Kyi's marriage and travels, her experience on the world political scene, the events that took her back to Rangoon in 1988, and the reasons that she remains there, now the recipient of the Nobel Prize for peace, to this day. The tone is admiring but balanced in this sturdy, well-researched volume, illustrated with both full-color and black-and-white photographs. (notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10+) Read full book review >