May all the People and Pigs be Happy by Micki Fine Pavlicek, illustrated by John Pavlicek #Review
May All People and Pigs Be Happy follows seven-year-old Claire and her stuffed pig, Pigalina. When Claire has a bad day and her friend hurts her feelings, Pigalina teaches her the loving-kindness meditation: a simple practice that helps her to feel kinder toward herself and inspires her to spread love, kindness and caring to others.
May all people and Pigs Be happy
May all people and creatures be safe
May all people and creatures be happy
May all people and creatures feel love
Claire learns to expand her ability to spread kindness and caring, first to her parents, then to strangers and even to her friend who made her upset. She says the well-wishes for an elderly man who looks lonely and sad, to an angry driver who honks his horn at her and for all of her classmates, before spreading loving-kindness to the whole world. Loving-kindness meditation, based on a Buddhist tradition, can be practiced by anyone regardless of spiritual background or mindfulness experience. May All People and Pigs Be Happy shows children how to grow their friendship, tenderness and love, and send it outward to all people, creatures and stuffed animal friends big and small.
May All People and Pigs Be Happy offers children an invaluable tool for coping with the stresses and struggles of childhood and helps them develop non-violent conflict resolution skills. While the loving-kindness meditation has its roots in Buddhism, Fine Pavlicek teaches it in a secular way that makes it accessible to children from all walks of life.
This beautiful hardback book looks and feels immediately approachable. Its illustrations are bold and bright and add to its content. It clearly build up a technique for mindfulness and meditation which children can master. I like the way the examples are rooted in a child's experience so that they would be able to relate to when they might need to feel reassured and safe. Schools can use this as a useful tool in their work. Written in an accessible way with age appropriate language, this is a lovely book to share.
Cat and Mouse say... May we all be safe, may we all be happy, may we all feel love.
About the Author
MICKI FINE PAVLICEK is a longtime psychotherapist in private
practice, a certified teacher of mindfulness meditation trained at the Center
for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, a TEDx presenter, the
founder of Mindful Living (livingmindfully.org), and the author of The Need to
Please: Mindfulness Skills to Gain Freedom from People Pleasing and Approval
Seeking. She has taught mindfulness-based stress reduction and loving-kindness
meditation since 1994 in a variety of settings, including her private practice,
research environments, Rice University, the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center, and the Jung Center.
About the Illustrator
JOHN PAVLICEK has worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, and
artist since 1972. His paintings have been represented by Gremillion
& Co., Fine Art in Houston, Texas, since 1983. Illustrating this
book has deepened his respect and admiration for the masterful,
professional illustrators and cartoonists past and present.
Book link: Amazon UK
Book link: Amazon UK
Thanks to the author for a copy of the book.
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