Book Review: Monster Parade

Books

Book Review: Monster Parade

About This Resource

Summary We want to set children up for success when introducing them to meditation practices so playfulness is on order. The Monster Parade: A Book about Feeling All Your Feelings and Then Watching Them Go by Wendy O'Leary with illustrations by Noémie Gionet Landry (Bala Kids 2022) is a wonderful and playful way to approach the idea that feelings and thoughts are fleeting.
Age Range ,
Contributor Middle Way Education
Topics , , , , , ,

Details

Like a parade, thoughts can be colorful and surprising and very alluring, but they come and go. The book is not too long and not too short, written in sweet prose with images the children seem to love.

Illustrator Noemie Gionet Landry paints an inviting world where all kinds of goofy monsters are lurching down the street in a parade, representing our constant thought stream. when children notice that those thoughts and feelings come and go, they can feel less trapped and stuck. The rhyming prose makes this a great read aloud. Monster Parade could actually be used as an entry point for adults as well.

Title: Monster Parade
Author: Wendy O’Leary
Illustrator: Noémie Gionet Landry
Publisher: Bala Kids / Shambhala
Free Download: Companion Guide

 

Related Resources

 

Sit with Me Song

February 26, 2024
Gillian Eames, the preschool teacher at the Middle Way School in New York, put music to Carolyn Kanjuro's book Sit With Me. The song teaches the seven points of meditation posture.
 

Shugen Roshi on Equanimity, Emotions, and Walking Meditation

January 25, 2024
This video recording (1hr) is of Shugen Roshi's talk at the Middle Way School in January 2024. Shugen sat with students and parents to talk about impermanence, one of Middle Way Education’s core units of inquiry. He focussed on the importance of cultivating equanimity in the context of recognizing the impermanent, always-changing quality of all things. He also fielded questions from parents and students, who wanted to know things like “how did the Buddha have fun?”
Empty Oryoki Bowls 

Lunch Rituals

January 9, 2024
This lunch ritual is loosely based on ōryōki, a Zen monastic eating meditation that places an emphasis on service, generosity, and appreciation. It was developed by Noa Jones and Catherine Fordham for the Middle Way School of the Hudson Valley. Shared mealtime is an opportunity to foster a healthy relationship to food, enjoy each other’s company, and create a harmonious environment at the table. Creating a consistent mealtime practice can help children feel more focussed and be more present with their food.
 

Buddhism as an Education System: Takeaways from a Paccaya Foundation Retreat

February 13, 2023
In these two videos of dharma talks given in Thailand, Venerable Ajahn Jayasaro connects the dharma to the practice of education with clarity and precision.

About The Contributor

Middle Way Education

Middle Way Education is a global not for profit organization that creates pathways for traditional Buddhist wisdom and knowledge to enhance modern education for the benefit of this and future generations.

Leave a Reply

Search MWE