Language During Mealtime Becca Eisenberg

I have known Noreen for many years and loved her first children's book, I'll Tell You Why...I Can't Wear Those Clothes! To read my review and short online interview with Noreen, click here.
Do you want to focus on mindfulness and acceptance with your children? For anyone not familiar with EFT tapping, check out this website here. 
I learned about tapping a few years ago and have found it helpful as an easy and accessible way to reduce anxiety. 
Look, Listen, Love written by Noreen O'Sullivan is a parent and children's guide to emotional freedom tapping. A softcover interactive children’s book, helping children love and accept themselves just the way they are. This book uses animals to teach children the self-awareness and self-acceptance tool EFT Tapping. Included in the book are different animals to help children interact and learn about tapping in a fun and playful way. 
For each animal, the author gives examples to learn how to use Look Listen Love. For many children, having examples, especially of animals can help them relate to specific strategies. After each animal, the book gives space for children to add their own Look Listen Love sentences to the book. This strategy helps make both children and adults aware of how you are feeling and giving yourself time to feel the feeling and then accept yourself. Listen to the podcast to learn more! 
To learn more about Noreen, visit my website here.

Living with Viola written and illustrated by the talented Rosena Fung is a wonderful graphic novel about a young name Livy who is having trouble fitting into her new school. She also has a lot of anxiety, which is represented as a shadowy twin named Viola. When visiting Toronto, I found a beautiful and unique bookstore called Type Books. After browsing for a few minutes, I discovered this book, Living with Viola. I love middle grade books, especially ones that are based on memoirs. Listen to our podcast to learn more!
In this middle-grade graphic novel, Livy navigates friendships, insecurity, family relationships, and how to navigate anxiety. As a tween and/or teen, anxiety can be overwhelming. I found the representation of anxiety of a shadowy twin, Viola, to be really interesting and helpful when trying to understand anxiety. It can also lead to productive conversations about self-talk. Often we talk worse to ourselves than anyone else! Living with Viola can be an excellent book for a classroom, home library, or book club. 
When reading this book with your tween/teen, here are some discussion questions to start with:
Tell me about Livy feels when she first begins school. Did you ever feel like Livy?
What do you think Viola represents in the story? Do you think Viola is mean or supportive of Livy?
Why is Livy embarrassed to bring her friend to her house? 
Are you similar or different from Livy? If so, how? 
To learn more about Rosena and her work, visit my website here.

The Way I Say It written by Nancy Tandon is a middle grade book that sixth grader, Rory who can't say  his r's. How can Rory get through sixth grade not even saying his name clearly? Rory struggles with an articulation disorder which affects his confidence and makes him prone to teasing. How does Rory get through this? What does he learn from this experience?
I really love this book because it helps gives readers the perspective of what it's like for children who have articulation disorders and struggle with their speech. The book also embeds other stories into it that focuses on perspective taking, friendships, brain injury, and dealing with confrontation. I also love how the author (and SLP!) gives readers a peek into a school speech language pathologist.
To learn more about Nancy and check out her newest book, visit here website here! 

Knock, Knock Pair of Books Project
Would you like to teach your child about humanizing homelessness? Check out these two wonderful children's books, Knock Knock Give a Sock and Knock Knock, Where's My Sock? written by Adina Lichtman, founder of Knock Knock Give a Sock. 
These two books are part of the Pair of Books Project, which helps to "turn transactions into interactions."
Knock Knock, Give a Sock is about a young girl named Crystal who moves into a shelter with her family. She loses a lucky sock during the move. Will she lose her luck without the sock? Throughout this book, the reader learns about Crystal and others who live in the shelter, such as her friend, Faith, whose apartment got destroyed by a fire.
Knock Knock, Where My Sock? is about a young girl named Didi who meets her neighbor on the street and learns that he needs socks. How will Didi help her neighbor, Diego?
To learn more about Adina and watch her pair of books project video, click here.

Do you have a child with a disability? Have you had trouble finding the right book for your child or student? Check out My Heart Books, which is a business that began with one mom's idea to help her family and teach others about her child with multiple disabilities. After meeting Erica, I immediately wanted to share her story about her son Brandon. 
My Heart Books began with one book, My Brother Brandon, and grew into a business that can help others. After Erica created this book with her daughter, Skyler, she realized that other families should have access to making their own books. This is what began My Heart Books. With My Heart Books, you can create and personalize your own books with personal photographs, avatars, and assistive technology tools (e.g., wheelchairs, etc.).  When making the book, Erica includes a detailed questionnaire to personalize the story the way that you want, which helps to make the book even more individual.
Listen to our podcast above to learn more!
To check out how Erica creates these books, watch the video on the website here.

Adventure Girl, Dabi Digs in Israel, written and illustrated by Janice Hechter, is a picture book about a young girl's love for exploring nature. While on a special family visit to her grandparents in Israel, Dabi goes on a special archeology dig with her family. While on the dig in this national park, she discovers a beautiful gold ring! What else will she find?
Adventure Girl is a story that celebrates a child's love of nature and provides a glimmer into the field of archaeology. The book also gives us an introduction to the setting of Belt Guvrin National Park in Israel and some new vocabulary words in Hebrew.
Guvrin National Park
Do you want to learn more about Guvrin National Park? Check out the website here.
Part of why I love sharing children's books is because I learn so much! Without reading this book, I never would have known about reserving your own archaeology dig in this national park. Check out Janice below on her own dig in this national park.
To learn more about Janice and visit my website, click here.