Relaxation for kids

Imagine Yourself...Energy Management for Kids

Imagine Yourself is a two CD audio set featuring four soothing, 30 minute relaxation programs - Be a Bird, Be a Ball, Be a Horse, Be a Cat. Narrated softly in both female and male voices, these programs do much to lessen worry and take away anger. They're perfect for unwinding after particularly busy or difficult days. 

Take care not to listen when driving, cooking, or multi-tasking. The hypnotic words and nature sounds are guaranteed to put you and your child to sleep.

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This is my final post of the year. Look for new reviews beginning January 6, 2014.

Relieve stress

Chill: Stress-Reducing Techniques for a More Balanced, Peaceful You
by Deborah Reber


Being overscheduled or overprogrammed can get overwhelming. It can lead to all kinds of stress, which is hard on mind and body. Reber's book can help. It's a practical how-to book to help teens relax and de-stress. Aimed primarily at girls, it can nevertheless be of use to boys as well. It has suggestions about time management, organization, and learning to say no. Reber then offers a variety of techniques for getting support from friends and family, finding perspective, and reconnecting with oneself. Quizzes, affirmations, and journaling ideas add an element of fun to the endeavors.

Get rid of worry

What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety 
by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D.


Worries, writes Dawn Huebner, are like tomatoes: you can make them grow by paying too much attention to them. Too much attention means that little worries can turn into big worries which are hard to get rid of. Huebner's interactive self-help book guides children through behavioral techniques that will relieve anxiety. The kid-friendly language, metaphors and pictures make the book easy to understand, while the techniques themselves are simple to try. Blank pages prompt children to draw and write about their worries, empowering them so that they can reduce their worries themselves with minimal help.

A useful and popular book for worriers of all ages.

Shop with caution

Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy
by Martin Lindstrom


Why do so many people succumb to shopper frenzy at this time of year? We all realize that marketers use many ways to get us to buy things that we don't need, but we do it anyway. Martin Lindstrom will open your eyes to the nefarious methods companies use to manipulate us. By appealing to our fears, sense of nostalgia, love of celebrity, or pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, companies plant a seed of desire that gradually grows, often without our being aware of it. Add in addictive properties and peer pressure, and it's no wonder that so many consumers fall into debt.

Lindstrom writes with an easy, entertaining tone, making his book a breezy, enjoyable read. He backs up his claims with research that is far more scientific than the mad psychologists of Vance Packard's Hidden Persuaders. Lindstrom's book will definitely have you shopping in a whole new way.

Why we shop

The Hidden Persuaders
by Vance Packard


Published in 1957, this was an exposé of the advertising industry in the United States and its subliminal use of something called motivational research to influence consumer buying habits. 

Motivational research or M.R., as Packard called it, consisted of partnerships between advertising agencies and behavioral psychologists. These scientists attempted to probe people's unconscious desires in order to persuade them to buy this or that or to vote in certain ways. Their often dubious methods sometimes led to laughable results, such as their contention that women liked baking cakes because the act reminded them of giving birth. Therefore, cake mixes shouldn't be too easy; instead of simply adding water, let housewives add both milk and eggs so that they feel pride instead of shame at using a ready-made mix.

Obviously, there was a lot of sexism back then, and the anecdotes revealed here are quite dated. Packard's overly serious tone also makes for moments of boredom. However, fans of Mad Men should find the book amusing.

The price of goods

Follow Your Money: Who Gets It, Who Spends It, Where Does It Go?
by Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka


Why do things cost so much? The authors of this book trace the path of money using familiar products many teens covet, such as designer jeans, MP3 players, movie tickets, cell phones, hamburgers, or pizza. They break down the price of each item, showing how material and labour costs, shipping fees, and taxes affect profits and royalties. They also explain how retailers try to make money through sales, which isn't as easy as one would think. 

By following the way money flows from producer to customer, readers will more fully understand the price of goods and maybe turn into more conscientious consumers.

George Elliott Clarke writes poems for his daughter

Lasso the Wind: Aurélia's Verses and other Poems
by George Elliott Clarke
illustrations by Susan Tooke
(Nimbus Publishing)


Poet George Elliott Clarke's first poetry collection for children is a curious mixture of light and dark. Some of his poems take delight in nature, children, and imagination, but there's an ominous undercurrent the runs underneath. He may trumpet spring's new leaves, backyard treasures, and the sugary whiteness of the moon: / Snow scooped up by a silver spoon, yet stars eye us like vultures, peacocks chew dirt, and Cupid's arrows snare you in sorrows. Another page depicts the misery of prisons and being poor.

Thankfully, Clarke's poems for his daughter Aurélia end things on a high note. His verses, written during Aurélia's first nine years of life, lovingly capture a parent's wonder and joy at a child's growing up.

Poems to savour

'Til All the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children
selected by David Booth
illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton


From the introduction:

Poets are wordsmiths, spending their lives choosing, bending, shaping, teasing, playing with words. The sounds of language fascinate them so. Poets write words that make your ears sing. When you read poems, they come alive with out-loud language. You can sometimes taste the words of a poem on your tongue as you make meaning in your imagination.


Booth's selection of poems capture special moments, intense feelings, and other imaginative experiences that speak especially to children. Here is a poem by Anne Corkett that starts off the collection:


The light of day
cannot stay.
The fading sun
will not come
to anybody's calling.

The cold moon light
Is clear and white.
She will not go,
this I know,
til all the stars have fallen.


Highly recommended.

Playful poems

Singily Skipping Along
by Sheree Fitch
art by Deanne Fitzpatrick
(NImbus Publishing)


In Singily Skipping Along, Sheree Fitch's inventive language poem, she coins new words filled with rhythm and bounce. Her creative verses encourage children aged two to five to move like trees, ducks, whales, and songs.

Deanne Fitzpatrick's hooked rug illustrations bring Fitch's words to colourful, three-dimensional life. You can practically feel their nubbly texture.

A smilingly happy read.

Glass sculpting

Fire into Ice: Adventures in Glass Making
by James Houston



Artist James Houston lived in the Canadian Arctic for many years. While there, he learned about bone and ivory carving and taught block and stencil printing. Houston agreed to leave the Arctic and move to New York City, where he was asked to design glass. Houston's love of the Arctic shine through in the ethereal glass sculptures he created. He likens the sound of glass to the cracking of ice on a northern lake.

Eloquent and imaginative, you'll want to seek out Houston's glass sculptures in galleries around the world.

Inuit art

Stones, Bones and Stitches: Storytelling through Inuit Art
by Shelley Falconer and Shawna White


Written by former curators of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, this book is a respectful introduction to the work of six Inuit artists. Each profile consists of a brief biography, a discussion of a particular work (carving, print, or tapestry), its meaning, and the history of the region.

The text is informative, though a bit dry. Readers interested in artistic method should find it absorbing, while others will be happy just looking at the pictures.

Inuit artists

Arctic Adventures: Tales from the Lives of Inuit Artists
by Raquel Rivera
illustrated by Jirina Marton


Life in the arctic is full of beauty, danger, magic, and endurance. These qualities are apparent in the stories. Thus, Pudlo Pudlat watches as his young nephew drifts away on an ice floe, Kenojuak Ashevak has a close encounter with the sea goddess Talelayu, Jessie Oonark and her daughter battle starvation, and Lazarusie Ishulutak comes face to face with a polar bear.

Each artist's experiences are reflected in his/her prints and sculptures. The combination of story and biography form a good introduction to Inuit culture, and enhance young readers' understanding of Inuit art.

Peacemakers

Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World
by Jane Breskin Zalben


Sixteen individuals who have worked to improve the lives of others are profiled in this attractive-looking book. They include writers, philosophers, Civil Rights advocates, and politicians, many of whom were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One-page summaries of each person's accomplishments are prefaced by a full-page illustration and inspiring quote, surrounded by beautiful borders made from fabric, etchings, watercolor, and found objects. Zalben's endnotes explain the various symbols and materials expressed in her pictures and how she hoped to interpret each person's character and his/her approach to life. Thus a delicate pond symbolizes Ralph Waldo Emerson's influence on Thoreau, a desert rose depicts the blooming passions of Eleanor Roosevelt, and textiles from Southeast Asia decorate the pages for Aung San Suu Kyi.

A bibliography, further readings and a list of resources encourage more research; the only things missing are actual photographs of the peacemakers themselves.

Conflict resolution

We Can Work It Out: Conflict Resolution for Children
by Barbara K. Polland, Ph.D.


Polland, a psychotherapist, has designed this book as a series of questions designed to foster discussion between parents and children. It addresses common conflicts that arise between children and encourages them to talk about their feelings. Further questions help them think about possible resolutions.

Polland's book is a good tool for helping children acquire independent problem-solving skills without parents having to resort to overly critical or disciplinary methods.





Tired of Yelling: Teaching Our Children to Resolve Conflict
by Lyndon D. Waugh, M.D.


Family psychiatrist Waugh's fifteen-step conflict resolution model may sound complicated, but as you read through his solutions, you realize how practical and doable it really is. Divided into three parts with five steps each, they are: thinking steps, talk/listen steps, and solving steps. The thinking steps help in assessing emotions, gauging their intensity, and learning to recognize the real problem, the talk/listen steps help in the appropriate expression of feelings and in understanding another's point-of-view, while the solving steps help in brainstorming solutions. 

Waugh understands the obstacles parents may need to overcome before his method can be attempted. He suggests strategies for dealing with defensiveness, skepticism, and noncompliance, before tackling the conflict resolution skills addressed to four different age groups: infants to preschoolers, elementary-school-age children, preteens, and teens. He also discusses how his method may be used by adults, and shines a light on how attitudes about anger and conflict patterns are formed from childhood onwards. It really helps in gaining insight into our own behaviours and finding more appropriate ways to express them.

Waugh's conflict resolution model can be used by the whole family for a more peaceful and tranquil home. Highly recommended.