Your Mind is Like the Sky

Sweet ~ Truthful ~ All-ages
tl;dr: Minds are complex and that is good.

This picture book is consciously for everyone, with a note at the end for adult readers. It is a nice introduction to meditation and mindfulness. The pictures have a sort of coolio, naivete that I appreciated. The text is particularly good. Writing for all ages is probably the hardest task for a writer. Often writers inadvertently talk down to readers. This book hits the right tone to be appealing to all. I have this on my list to purchase for our home library.

Thanks to NetGallery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw that this book is categorized under the children's nonfiction, I thought that maybe it's a memoir or life story of someone. I didn't read the description and I just grab this because I got curious with the title, but when I started reading, I realized that it is about a serious matter: loneliness and depression.

Although this is meant for young kids, this book is intended for everyone because of the issue being tackled. I remember when I was still young, a teacher taught us that there are times that we might feel sad. She told us that it's just common especially during gloomy weather, but she also pointed out that sometimes we feel alone because we have no one to share our problems or even our joys. Just like in this book, she explained that instead of just thinking of it, we must try to focus on the bigger picture or maybe diverting ourselves to hobbies like music, reading, and arts and crafts.

Children today are more vulnerable to depression because of the high technology evolution and other various reasons just like family problems and bullying. I strongly believe that this kind of book is a must-read and a big help for the teachers and parents to educate them about this issue.

I am on the social emotional learning leadership team at my school. This is a lovely little mindful book about recognizing the changes in our thoughts, and how to overcome "raincloud" thoughts. I will be recommending this for purchase for our mindful library - the illustrations are lovely and simple, and allow for more discussion on the page. I like that this recognizes that throughout the day we have many thoughts and feelings that may stay or may be fleeting.

A powerful storybook about the power of mindfulness and investigative thought processes. One that I will definitely share with my students.

A wonderful book that doesn’t speak down to the reader and deals with the most important thing, our mind. It’s a great introduction and done well and thoughtfully to involve everyone reading it be it adult or child. The illustrations really add benefit to the message. A wonderful book.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

The first thing that struck me about this book is the gentle, soothing illustrations. Mindfulness, anxiety and self esteem issues are relevant to all ages and this book gives an excellent starting point for opening up dialogue with young people. I can see how it could be easily used with students throughout the primary phase and with some KS3 students too. It is comforting, without being dismissive of worries or pretending there are 'quick fixes'. A straight forward, helpful text for anyone helping young people through anxious times.

An excellent story that teaches kids to practice mindfulness in a way that they can understand. As an adult who often struggles with this, it's a great reminder for me and a good way to begin teaching my own children the art of mindfulness!

Wow, what an incredibly well-written book about mindfulness. Your Mind is Like the Sky is an introduction to the mindfulness practice. Although this book is targeted to children, it is a wonderful reminder about the power of noticing our thoughts and feelings for readers of all ages.

The illustrations work well for this message and help convey the heaviness associated with different types of feelings one might have. Ballard's writing is approachable and conveys beautifully the messages of how to be more aware of your thoughts through the mindfulness practice. There is a gentle rhythm to this book that made this very soothing to read and I highly recommend it. A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Mindfulness is a hot topic and this book is a wonderful way to introduce the concept to young readers. The story is simple and very clear in its descriptions of mindfulness techniques, using a metaphor of the sky, with both cloudy and clear sunny days, to illustrate the concept, and yet also clearly explaining the process of controlling your thoughts. The illustrations, a mix of watercolours and coloured pencil outlines contribute to the dreamy state of the book and give it a child-like air. The main character is consistently done in full colour while many of the background characters and objects remain as simple outlines.

The end of the book includes a note to older readers as well as a range of mindfulness techniques for readers to try.

Your Mind is Like A Sky is a great addition to any mental health and mindfulness picture book collection.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

Find more reviews, reading age guides, content advisory, and recommendations on my blog <a href="https://madisonslibrary.wordpress.com">Madison's Library</a>

Every so often a brave book comes along. Your Mind is Like the Sky is one such book. In an attempt to tackle mental health, Bronwen Ballard has hit upon an analogy that isn't just perfect for little ones, but for the little one's within all of us.
The metaphor is perfect and provides anyone who reads with some coping strategies. I only wish this book was about when I was little.

Depression has often been portrayed as a black dog, but here our heroine has a dark grey one with her all the time. The book is about mindfulness and ways to fight off negative ideas, which are portrayed as "raincloud thoughts". With the simple observation that we all have bad days, and some times are full of grey thoughts, the black, broiling "raincloud thoughts" are the target. And that makes this book a superb one, for I'd never seen the subject treated in such a pleasant, understandable and all-ages-friendly way. The artwork is really remarkable too, standing out with its kind of graffiti scrawl. Images seem to burst forth from what a child and an age spent with chalks and crayons would have made on a plain bedroom wall. The volume closes by addressing the adult purchaser on mindfulness, which I have never got on with and still doubt I ever will. But the simple imagery here, of being in the cloud or not, of seeing other, fluffier and whiter clouds and just seeing how our internal weather sends any cloud away in time, is just spot on. Black dogs aren't the problem, and neither soon will be black clouds on this evidence.

This is a great book that teaches about being knowledgeable about the thoughts that one has and what to do about it.  It offers tools to begin tackling negative thoughts, and helps to assess when such tools might be useful or better than others.  With beautiful and sometimes haunting illustrations to boot, they do an incredible job at expanding upon the text.  This is great for the young one going through a rough time.  Perfect for kids of all ages.

A positive introduction to mindfulness for parents, caregivers, and children. Helps open the discussion of dark thoughts, and how a child can process those feelings. Text is followed by helpful "notes for grownup readers."

As I was reading this children's book, I started to think about the Headspace app, which is something that I listen to. Indeed, this is a book for kids that introduces the principles of mindfulness. A metaphor comparing feelings to sky and clouds threads through this nicely illustrated story that will help children to identify feelings while, hopefully, learning not to be overwhelmed by the "rain cloud" ones. This book provides a good and easy to understand introduction to mindfulness for children. In addition, there are =resources at the end of the book for both children and adults.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this good addition to the emotional health shelf.

Illustrations are good. Well-written book which can be used for introducing the concept of mind to kids. It uses the sky as a metaphor for the mind and explains about clouds being different thoughts.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC

I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Ballard has written a book on mindfulness that helps younger readers explore their feelings. The idea that thoughts are like clouds drifting through our minds is not new but she makes it easy to understand. The acknowledgement of ways people deal with dark clouds helps children recognize their own sad thoughts and ways they've coped. Ballard helps the reader find a way to cope and recognize their own emotions.
The illustrations connect with a child's view of the world and capture what kids think about.
Information for adults included at the end of the book to help them work with children and themselves.

'Your Mind is Like the Sky: A First Book of Mindfullness' by Bronwen Ballard with illustrations by Laura Carlin is a book aimed at teaching children what to do with negative thoughts.

A child's mind is compared to the sky. Sometimes blue and sunny, sometimes gray and unclear. A child's thoughts are the various clouds in those skies. The reader is shown how to view thoughts as fleeting and to deal with the darker ones that come along. The book includes an afterword to parents and a series of steps for older readers to go through.

I liked this helpful book explaining that thoughts are just thoughts and don't need to control us. The illustrations have a nice kind of surreal quality to them that goes with the story.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Children can struggle with understanding negative thoughts, but Your Mind Is Like the Sky offers kids a concrete connection for them to understand how our thoughts ebb and flow and what we can do about them. Comparing our thoughts to clouds, the book shows how some thoughts are light, fluffy, and nice, but some thoughts are dark, mean raincloud thoughts. It goes on to show ways people deal with those raincloud thoughts and offers a trick: see the whole sky, not just the raincloud. It also reminds us that we can choose which thoughts we pay attention to.

Though categorized as a children's book, the message of the text and the calm illustrations would be relevant for many adults as well. This book can help open up conversations for children about negative thoughts, worries, and anxiety while also providing realistic and useful ways to deal with those ideas.

A wonderful introduction to mindfulness for young children with clear pictures and accessible language. The little girl, accompanied by her dog throughout faces a number of situations in which her mind is clear or cloudy.

I liked how the emotions she felt were linked to the cloudy weather and how it accepted that sometimes those raincloud thoughts could be all consuming but gave some practical ways you could try to ward off those thoughts.

I also liked the tips for grown-up readers at the end of the book to develop mindfulness techniques and habits.

I will definitely consider using this book in the classroom with children to help them understand and recognise their emotions, and feel empathy for others.

Your Mind is Like the Sky is a gorgeous children's book teaching mindfulness. The artwork is crayon and quite adorable. The lesson is how we can imagine our mind as the sky, and our thoughts are clouds that can be fluffy and happy, or rainclouds that turn everything grey. We aren't the clouds, and we can choose what to pay attention to. At the end are exercises that care-givers can do with children. I read this with my cubs and we all enjoyed it.

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Quarto Publishing for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.