The Mindful Magician and the Trip to Feelings Town

First off, the cover font and illustrations are fabulous. That’s what drew me in. And then lessons, the story is so well done and tremendously important for young readers to hear/read, and for parents and teachers to share. It’s engaging (love the cape!) and the examples are relatable and the tips are clear, plus easily implemented. I think would appeal to both girls and boys. Definitely recommending this to my young mothers and preschool owner friend. And I know several adults this book could help too. A truly valuable resource to help kids help themselves. Mindfulness — Well done!

This is a lively, fun, and colorfully illustrated children’s book. The mindfulness exercises incorporated movement - including the indicators for when the reader is “ready” to help the book characters. The first technique seemed a little too miraculous - what happens to a feeling when one just commands it to stop? It doesn’t follow up with a way to process or deal with the emotion. I would have liked to have seen an explanation with that technique. Overall a nice primer in mindfulness.

I received an ARC courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

As a clinical psychologist in practice working with kids I will definitely be adding this book to my bookshelf. It was quite a comprehensive book! It offers practical tools for kids who are prone to experience big feelings and become dysregulated by them. I found the tools to be helpful and practical that kids can implement everyday. I can see this book used at home but also clinical and school settings. I found the story to be engaging for kids and I loved the illustrations.

This book was adorable and I wish it had existed when I was a child. The amount of SEL books being published lately is amazing. I love how this book broke down different emotions into neighborhoods, and had different skills for each one. I can't wait to share this book with my niece, she loves yoga and all things mindful, I'm sure she will love this book as well.

This was a un expectedly thorough book! We have a number of social-emotional learning titles in our collection, but this book turned out to be very sensory-oriented, which I appreciated. While I wish it was a bit shorter to make it a more realistic read-aloud option, I did like that it was divided into sections by geographic area/feeling, so a parent or teacher could select a specific section to read to a child who needs a little extra support and strategy help!

A magician goes through “Feeling Town” to help children experiencing Big Emotions & Inside Feeling. The magician asks for the readers help & teaches them valuable tools for handling these emotions.
Even as an adult I found the techniques used in this book to be relevant for me. It’s wonderful to know that children will be growing up with books like these available to them!

This book not only goes into understanding feeling and what causes them, but it also the physical effects they can have on you while you are feeling extreme emotions.

I wasn't able to post to Goodreads but I hope to because this is a wonderful resource for young children and their parents.

The book is wonderfully illustrated and covers a wide range of feelings. There are 5 feelings that can be overcome by being mindful of "triggers" for those feelings.

1.) Strong Feelings
2.) Sights and & Sounds
3.) Wiggly Feelings
4) Movement Feelings
5.) Inside Body Feelings

As parents, we may not recognize what causes these feelings but we see our child acting out when these feelings arise. Sometimes loud noises can cause feelings of fear. Everyone is different in their feelings and we can help our child recognize these feelings and to deal with them in healthy ways. Building confidence and strong relationships.

Highly Recommend.

As an adult, I wish I had a book like when I was younger. It's so important that children have an understanding on how to navigate big feelings and sets the foundation for how we deal with things as adults. This should be a staple in every classroom.

Thank you NetGalley and Jessica Kingley Publishers for a copy of "The Mindful Magician and the Trip to Feelings Town" in exchange for my honest review.

This book has several techniques to help parents, caregivers and teachers help children manage overwhelming emotions. There are 5 strategies covered in the book and each gives a link where you can get more information online. The theme is that kids have magic inside them, they just need help to learn how to use it.

The book takes place in "Feelings Town" and the first strategy is strong feelings - anger, sadness and worry. Inside body feelings are fidgets, hunger, wiggles, sickness, toilet. They learn that feelings are normal and everyone has them. Kids need to learn how to recognize how they feel when they have strong feelings - increase in heartbeat, breathing, muscles tighten, their body feels hot. They learn to "stop" and deal with what they are feeling.

The second strategy is how to deal with big noises, busy sights that can leave them feeling scared and overwhelmed.

The third strategy is how to control the wiggles and where in the body they live - fingers, bottom, toes and feet. They learn how to make the wiggles disappear and feel calm.

The fourth strategy how to control movement when you move more than others. Where do they feel these wiggly movements - head, belly, toes.

The fifth strategy is inside body feelings like hunger, being full, being cold or hot, feeling thirsty, in pain or having a full bladder.

Parents, teachers, caregivers can go online for ideas in each category to help children learn about their emotions.

There are kids in Feelings Town who need help managing their strong emotions. Exploring reasons why we may feel certain ways and what triggers those emotional responses and reactions, (hangry anyone?), this book explores identifying feelings, naming them and finding ways to handle them safely and in a healthy way. With the Mindful Magician as a guide, this book shows children they have the power to control their own emotions, just like magic.

A delightfully simple exploration on mindfulness, Brukner has created an book with a focus on mindfulness and emotional skills. Tackling all five SEL core competencies, it touches on concepts and topics related to self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationship skills.

The bright illustrations and educational undertones to the text are a great way to open conversations between adults and young readers on what the different concepts and words mean to them and how to incorporate them into daily life. This book is a introductory guide to emotional regulation, feelings and mindfulness concepts. The strategies are great, and normalizes all emotions for children and allows adults to understand it is okay for their own children to have these extreme emotions or tricky emotions.

This story was both entertaining and educational, which can be a tricky balance to maintain in a children’s book, and I will be suggesting it to teachers whenever possible. Incorporating topics such as this into children's picture books is a tried and true way to teach important life skills in a way that is fun. This would be an amazing addition for classrooms, libraries, counselling offices and more.