Meditation for Kids (and Other Beings), by Laurie Fisher Huck

This is a tiny book – literally pocket sized, and if I count right, 72 pages including the copyright pages & about the author info.

It’s a really spiffy book, with a great introduction to meditation and an explanation of what meditation is, with text & illustrations that appear to be hand drawn. It’s witty, but down to Earth, and easy to read and understand.

For what it’s worth, this isn’t a “how to meditate” book, so much as a “why meditate” book.  You’ll probably need to do some follow up with your children to actually get them meditating.

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The views expressed here are my own. I bought the book new several years ago, and the Amazon link is an affiliate link.

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Children’s Reiki Handbook by Pamela and Robert Yarborough

Other than the fact that all the photos here appear to be teens and tweens, I’m really not sure what makes this book specifically for children.

It is, however, an excellent and concise intro to Reiki. It covers history, techniques, what to expect at various levels of Reiki, and the Reiki symbols (although the inclusion of symbols in print is still something that Reiki practitioners disagree about), meditation, and chakras.

I’d probably recommend this to any beginning Reiki practitioner, but I’ll probably still be on the lookout for something that really is more kid-oriented.

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The views expressed here are my own. I purchased the book that was reviewed here. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

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The Basics of Heathenry For Kids by Jennifer Lohr

There are a lot of things to like about this book – it’s straight forward, and will be easy for kids to understand. It talks about family, culture, lore, relationships with the Gods, and more…all in a pretty short book. When the title says Basics, it really does mean basics. There’s little depth, but a lot of info here that could lead to good questions and discussions for any family.

I do have a couple of minor quibbles. First, there are no page numbers. Second, the author says in at least two places that such-and-such deity may have a different name  in other cultures, which seems a little on the soft-polytheism side of things for most Heathen/Asatru folks I know. Third, the author talks about pre-Christian Pagan/Heathen peoples as being indigenous to their homelands, and proceeds to define that as “having lived in their land for a very very long time” – I’m not sure that can be said of any group or culture anywhere, as fights broke out and people moved when conditions changed. But the fact that she pairs this whole statement with an image of a plains Indian, in a full headdress, makes the statement stand out more to me, because one side of my family is Native, and is from a plains tribe, and they were not the first people in the places they inhabit now – they pushed other tribes out so they could have better hunting lands.

At any rate. I really feel like this could have been a longer book, or had a workbook with it, or something. There’s almost nothing about actual Heathen/Asatru lore here. There’s a really good focus on how culture is a thing, and how we learn from our culture, and that a culture being different doesn’t make it bad. I really think most Pagan families would find good stuff here, and plenty to think about in terms of how they approach culture and tradition in their own homes.

 

 

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The opinions expressed here are my own. I purchased the copy of this book that was reviewed. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

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Crystals R For Kids by Leia A Stinnett

So, first off: if Atlantis, Aliens and Ancient Lemuria aren’t your cup of tea, skip the first 6 pages of this book. Really…it’s not worth getting worked up over. The author does state that her books are inspired by the Archangel Michael, so there’s that too, though it’s only briefly mentioned in the book itself – the explanation is in the “About the Author” page at the end.

Which is not to say that the book is awful. It’s cute, it’s written at a good level for elementary kids (the book listing calls it out as age 9 and up). It talks about how to choose crystals and how to cleanse them. It introduces 5 commonly used crystals (all types of quartz) as characters with personalities, and talks about when one might use those crystals. It talks about a few ways to use crystals, and spends a few pages talking about chakras.

One thing that really is lacking here is that the 5 stones that are named characters aren’t enough to cover all the chakras – in fact, only 4 of them are listed in the suggested stones for different chakras. I think, if the author really wanted kids to grasp the chakras better, stones for each chakra should have been in other parts of the book.

The author has a whole series of books, “The Little Angel” books, on different spiritual topics. This is the first of them I’ve read, and other than the new agey bit at the beginning, it’s probably decent enough to make me look into other titles she’s written depending on the topic I’m interested in working with the kids on, with the expectation that I’d read it first before handing it over to any child.

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The opinions expressed here are my own, and I purchased the book reviewed. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

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Rupert’s Tales: A Book of Bedtime Stories, written by Kyrja, Illustrated by Tonia Bennington Osborn

I’ve probably mentioned before that my kids really like Rupert. We’ve been reading about his wheel of the year adventures off and on for a couple of years now, and the rhyming couplets that each story is told in, plus the beautiful illustrations, seem to keep the kids’ attention.

This book has been no different. Four tales – one about being afraid to go to sleep, and why sleep is important, and three about different aspects of dreams and ways to keep dreams from being scary, have kept them rapt through each reading (and that’s no small feat – with an almost 4 year old who’s beginning to read, and an almost 7 year old who reads some but struggles with processing spoken words, listening to stories is not always an easy task).

I’m particularly fond of the 2nd and 3rd stories – one talks about being in charge of what happens in dreams, and the other applies that lesson, along with giving the idea of a touchstone type object that can be used to help focus when the dreamer is not so sure of what to do. These are really great concrete things for kids to know, that they can apply to their own dreams right away.

Definitely a keeper, and one to read over and over again.

 

 

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The opinions expressed here are my own. Kyrja put me in touch with her publisher to get this review copy provided for free. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

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