I am always a little skeptical of these kinds of books. Mostly because they can get “preachy” and “have an agenda” to them. And, unfortunately My Magic Breath: Finding Clam Through Mindful Breathing does hit on a few of my “sore spots” (such as: instead of saying, “Did you have a sad moment?” they say, “You probably had a sad moment.” Which reinforces something is “wrong with me” if I did not because an “authority figure” is telling me I should have had a “sad” moment). However, the illustrations are lovely. They help an otherwise “would be a 3 book” move into score of 4 territory. The other part that does make this a 4 is that if you do have a child that needs a little help with “finding calm” this is not a horrible way of introducing the child to it.
This shows how to “blow your troubles” away. Anyone who has had a, “I feel off today” kind of day, knows breathing is a good way to get the “bad stuff” out of the system. That “calm down and rethink this” moment comes into play. Perhaps we do create the situations that make our children stressed, but things like, “I am nervous about this test,” can be helped by just taking a deep breath.
While My Magic Breath is aimed at the toddler crowd, it is never too soon to practice good breathing to help when that test, sports game or going into a new situation comes along.