Ask young readers if they want to learn mindfulness techniques, and they may shrug. Show them The Bedtime Boat by Sital Gorasia Chapman (The Math Adventurers series), with art by Anastasia Suvorova (Shadow), and they will likely sit rapt as the picture book's mindfulness message plays out in soothing rhyme and calming color.
It's bedtime for young Chandan following a stimulating day, but after his mother turns out his light, "Dragons and dinosaurs whizzed around his head,/ Rabbits and robots raced over the bed." Chandan calls to his mom, who places a miniature boat on his stomach and says, "Watch the boat, Chandan,/ it floats on the ocean./ It rises and falls with your/ breath's gentle motion." It takes a few tries, and a few rounds of that slumberous rhyming refrain, but finally, "The waves' gentle whoosh/ in the silvery light/ rocked Chandan to sleep./ 'Sweet dreams./ Good night.' " Suvorova's swirly ocean blues and loose seafoam greens are studded with objects in grounding solid colors--golden stars, a ruby-red sail--leaving the bewitching impression of jewels laid out on velvet. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author