My Big Heart
My Big Heart By Jennifer Fae. Illustrated by Dreja Novak.
From the Author: “My Big Heart is a story of young girl who feels small, both physically and emotionally, and learns to overcome it by realizing the bigness and power of her own heart. While children face limitations because of their physical size, the story can also subtly speak to feeling small when it comes to low self-confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem. The main character experiences a change of heart in how she sees herself and the world through mindfulness and re-connecting to her own heart.”
I loved My Big Heart for two reasons.
First, it is a delicate story, reflecting an experience common to so many children. For the spiritually aware among these, the challenge is not just about being physically small in comparison to others around them. It is also about being huge souls in a small, dependent body.
In her writing, Jennifer invites readers, both young and those reading with them, to embody their greatness, their energetics, and their wholeness.
Second, beyond the story and the practice offered, the story and book offer pure energy.
The illustrations are also powerful in their alignment with the story and the blank spaces.
There are so many great books in which the illustrations and story don’t align, which are, thus, not fitting to the sensitive among us.
This is a rare book in its attentiveness to little hidden energetic alignment.
Crying is Like The Rain
Crying is Like The Rain By Heather Hawk Feinberg, illustrated by Chamisa kellogg.
From the Author: “Is it possible we’ve misunderstood crying all along? That’s the discovery one big sister sets out to share with her little brother as they walk to school and get caught in a storm. Along the way they explore sadness, loneliness, fear, frustration, anger and more, through gentle metaphor. Their journey examines our tears revealing how they begin, why they happen, and what to do with them. Throughout the book, the message received is that we are safe in our emotional experiences and that feelings, like the weather, come and go. This is an empowering story about navigating and understanding our feelings as a healthy, important, and very natural part of our lives. Have you ever noticed you feel differently after you cry? That’s because Crying is like the Rain.”
Crying is Like the Rain is a story about mindfulness and feelings.
Learning how to work out our feelings, accepting them, and possibly embracing them is a tool all kids, teens (and adults) need in their toolboxes.
The metaphor of rain and all that comes around it is precise, at times stormy, and mostly delicate. It offers children a connection to an element that they know and can thus easily relate to.
Crying is Like the Rain is a beautiful book, and I recommend adding it to your bookshelf.
The illustrations speak the story on their own. As in My Big Heart, I personally love it when illustrators leave some white space on some of the pages and around illustrations.
It allows the sensitive ones to enjoy such needed books as well.
I look forward to reading more books from Jennifer Fae and Heather Hawk Feinberg.
