15 Must-Have Mindfulness Books for Kids

Inside: 15 of the best mindfulness books for kids. Plus our free 12 mini mindfulness activities printables. Woohoo!

This year has been all about working on mindfulness for my young son who battles his BIG EMOTIONS.

Helping him develop recognition of his emotions and give him strategies to cope have been a big help in our household.

We’ve used mindfulness books for kids to start teaching him this wonderful life-long beneficial skill.

And these skills can help all children! It doesn’t matter age, temperament or even diagnosis.

In the era of cellphones, crammed calendars, and new pressures, many of us cannot achieve mindfulness (or even know what it is). 

Anxiety, depression, stress, and addictions are running rampant through our youth.

A desire to teach our children a different way of being has led to a surge of books about mindfulness for kids — or, as defined by The Greater Good Science Center at UC–Berkeley “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment.”

More schools and sports teams are incorporating mindfulness into their curriculums because the results are significant.

These 15 mindfulness books for kids are some of my very favorites and I know you will love them too.

15 Mindfulness Books For Kids

1. Mighty Mindful Kids

Introducing Mighty Mindful Kids, the one-of-a-kind printable mindfulness eBook for kids age 2 to 10!

This is Mindfulmazing’s best selling mindfulness book for kids.

It’s fantastic.

This book includes simple (yet effective) easy to apply practices for kids from ages 2 to 10.

It’s available to you as an instant download.

Mindfulness—accepting each moment and living fully present in the moment.

Mental health professionals are raving about the healing properties of mindfulness and this book is a great way to introduce this amazing practice to your little ones.

In a simple and accessible way, it provides 40 easy mindfulness activities that you can engage in right away. It teaches children to calm down, wake up happier, and fall asleep more easily, diminish worry, diffuse anger, enhance relationships, and become kinder. Each page provides colorful, easy-to-follow steps for each practice.

2. Mindful Kids

The one-of-a-kind mindfulness activity deck for kids ages 4 to 104!

Make any moment mindful from morning to night with 5 categories of cards, designed to fit into each part of the day.   Whimsical full-color illustrations on both sides of the cards provide easy-to-follow steps for each practice.

The cards and 8-page instructional booklet include tips for children of a wide range of abilities, making this deck an inclusive tool for nurturing inner peace and strength.

We have this activity deck of cards and enjoy reading and performing the exercises in bed before sleep time. It settles my son down.

3. Yoga Kids

Step back and think deeply about life’s larger themes with yoga! Use this special set to make a regular mindfulness practice so kids build healthy habits for life.

Get inspired to integrate yoga into your family’s daily life with My Daddy is a Pretzel, then get in the mood with the Yoga CD and make it happen with the 50 fun yoga activities in the Yoga Pretzels deck!

4. Big Life Journal (A+ In Mindfulness Books for Kids)

Get ready to dream BIG! This growth mindset journal empowers children to face challenges head-on, think positive, embrace mistakes, and know they can achieve anything!

Featuring a new and interesting topic every week, the Big Life Journal develops strong Social and Emotional Learning and growth mindset skills through inspiring stories, colorful illustrations, and engaging guided activities.

With plenty of room to draw and write on each page, the Big Life Journal lets kids work at their own pace as they reflect, learn, and grow.

5. Big Life Journal For Teens

A growth mindset journal which empowers tweens & teens to dream about their future!

Help your tween or teen develop the mindset of growth, resilience, gratitude, and positivity. Help them find their own voice in a world that is constantly coming at them with what to do, be, and think.

Big Life Journal – Teen Edition helps tweens and teens develop confidence…the deep down, know-who-you-are confidence!

It encourages them to discover themselves and gets them excited about limitless possibilities ahead.

6. Sitting Still Like a Frog

Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions.

Includes a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises read by Myla Kabat-Zinn.

Mindfulness—the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is—is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. This little book is a very appealing introduction to mindfulness meditation for children and their parents.

In a simple and accessible way, it describes what mindfulness is and how mindfulness-based practices can help children calm down, become more focused, fall asleep more easily, alleviate worry, manage anger, and generally become more patient and aware.

Sitting Still Like a Frog contains eleven practices that focus on just these scenarios, along with short examples and anecdotes throughout. Included with purchase is an audio CD with guided meditations, voiced by Myla Kabat-Zinn, who along with her husband, Jon Kabat-Zinn, popularized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a therapeutic approach.

If you would like to snag your FREE colorful, printable and neatly packed version of 12 mini mindfulness activities your kids will love. Get it right here.

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7. Meditation is an open Sky

Meditation is an open sky is a mindfulness meditation for kids. Kids of any age will learn simple exercises to help manage stress and emotions, find focus, and face challenges.

They’ll discover how to feel safe when scared, relax when anxious, spread kindness, and calm anger when frustrated. Simple, secular, and mainstream, this mindfulness book is an excellent tool for helping kids deal with the stresses of everyday life and improve emotional health. Meditation guide with relaxation techniques.

8. Breathe Like a Bear

Breathe Like a Bear is a beautifully illustrated collection of mindfulness exercises designed to teach kids techniques for managing their bodies, breath, and emotions. Best of all, these 30 simple, short breathing practices and movements can be performed anytime, anywhere: in the car to the grocery store, during heavy

homework nights at home, or even at a child’s desk at school.

Based on Kira Willey’s Parents’ Choice GOLD Award-winning CD, Mindful Moments for Kids, this one-of-a-kind book is sure to help kids find calm, gain focus, and feel energized during the day, and encourage families to establish a fun and consistent mindfulness practice, whether at home or on the go.

9. Puppy Mind

In this picture book Puppy Mind for children and adults, illustrated by Jim Durk, who is adored by thousands of children for his many Clifford the Big Red Dog and Thomas the Steam Engine books, a young boy discovers his mind is like a puppy, always wandering away, into the past or the future.

He sets about learning to train his puppy mind to heel to the present moment. Through remembering to breathe, the boy becomes a stronger and more caring master of his puppy mind, keeping it in the present, if only for a moment. Includes a link to a discussion guide for parents and teachers.

10. I am Peace

 When the world feels chaotic, find peace within through an accessible mindfulness practice from the bestselling picture-book dream team that brought us I Am Yoga. Express emotions through direct speech. Find empathy through imagination. Connect with the earth. Wonder at the beauty of the natural world. Breathe, taste, smell, touch, and be present.

Perfect for the classroom or for bedtime, Susan Verde’s gentle, concrete narration and Peter H. Reynolds’s expressive watercolor illustrations bring the tenets of mindfulness to a kid-friendly level. Featuring an author’s note about the importance of mindfulness and a guided meditation for children, I Am Peace will help readers of all ages feel grounded and restored.

11. Mindful Games

A deck of 55 mindfulness games for kids that takes a playful approach to develop attention and focus, and identifying and regulating emotions–by the author of Mindful Games and The Mindful Child.

Playing games is a great way for kids to develop their focusing and attention skills and to become more mindful. This card deck helps parents, caregivers, and teachers cultivate these qualities at home or in a school setting. The games develop what Susan Kaiser Greenland calls the “new A, B, C’s” for learning and for a happy and successful life: Attention, Balance, and Compassion.

In a playful way, the games introduce kids to breathing practices and techniques for developing focus, concentration, and sensory awareness, and identifying and self-regulating emotions, among other skills. They include “anchor” games that develop concentration; visualization games that encourage kindness and focus; analytical games that cultivate clear thinking; and awareness games that develop all of these qualities and give greater insight into ourselves, others, and relationships.

The deck contains 55 5X7 illustrated cards, each devoted to one game or activity, and comes in a sturdy, beautifully designed box.

12. A Handful of Quiet

 A Handful of Quiet presents one of the best known and most innovative meditation practices developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as part of the Plum Village community’s practice with children.

Pebble meditation is a playful and fun activity that parents and educators can do with their children to introduce them to meditation. It is designed to involve children in a hands-on and creative way that touches on their interconnection with nature. Practicing pebble meditation can help relieve stress, increase concentration, nourish gratitude, and can help children deal with difficult emotions.

A Handful of Quiet is a concrete activity that parents and educators can introduce to children in school settings, in their local communities or at home, in a way that is meaningful and inviting. Any adult wishing to plant seeds of peace, relaxation, and awareness in children will find this unique meditation guide helpful. Children can also enjoy doing pebble meditation on their own.

13. My Magic Breath

 From New York Times bestselling author Nick Ortner comes a beautiful picture book that will help children discover calm through the magic of mindful breathing:

Do YOU have the magic breath?

Let’s see…Take a deeeeeep breath in…and BLOW it out…

…and like magic, you can feel better just by breathing! Sometimes it’s hard to feel happy. But with this interactive picture book, children breathe along as they learn how to make angry or sad thoughts disappear.

In a world that is sometimes too busy, with too many things going on, My Magic Breath will help steer children into a serene space of mindfulness, self-awareness, and balance.

A wonderful classroom and naptime story, this book is perfect for fans of Susan Verde’s I Am Yoga and I Am Peace, Mariam Gates’s Good Night Yoga, and Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book.

14. Listening to My Body

 Children learn what they practice!

Listening to My Body guides children through the practice of naming their feelings and the sensations that accompany them. Engages children in easy, kid-friendly mindfulness activities.

Helps kids build on their capacity to be mindful, self-regulate, and develop emotional resilience.

15. Mindfulness for Kids:  30 Fun Activities

 Mindfulness for Kids offers fun activities for kids ages 6-12 to stay cool, happy, and present with mindfulness.

Homework horrors, chores, and not-so-friendly friends―that’s enough to make any kid’s brain hurt. The secret to staying cool is easy: it’s called mindfulness―and this book gives kids fun activities to practice it on their own.

Mindfulness for Kids applies mindfulness exercises to stories and real-life scenarios that kids go through at home, school, and with friends. Shared through the voices of five children: Jasmine, Willow, Kayli, Colby, and Zeke, Mindfulness for Kids is an engaging, kid-friendly guide for handling tough situations and powerful emotions mindfully.

From using belly breathing to help with panic before a presentation to actively listening to siblings, Mindfulness for Kids addresses the everyday challenges that kids face with:

• Mindfulness 101 that teaches kids what mindfulness is, and how they can be mindful of their emotions and senses.
• Relatable, real-life scenarios that kids encounter at home, school, and with friends.
• 30 Fun exercises that show kids how tricks like a gratitude list, “counting to calm”, and even yoga poses can help them relax and feel better from not-so-nice feelings.

Mindfulness is a kind of superpower we all have but don’t know how to use. These books will teach kids how to tune into that superpower, through stories and activities. These superpowers will help them now, and for the rest of their lives.

I hope you enjoy these mindfulness books for kids as much as we have. Please comment below on your favourite.

Happy — (and calm) reading!

Don’t forget to snag your free Mindfulness Ebook now!   It’s colorful, printable, and includes 12 pocket-sized mindfulness activities your kids will love. Get it right here.

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