Look And Be Grateful

Celebrate the joy in things large and small in this meditative board book, sized just right for small hands. "Today is today, and it is a gift," writes Tomie dePaola, best-selling author-illustrator of Quiet, in this simple ode to gratitude and mindfulness. Simple and sweet, Look and Be Grateful is a reminder to treat each day as the blessing it is. Now available in sturdy board-book format, this edition is ideal for easter baskets. Illustrated with Tomie's signature soft lines and gentle colors, a young boy awakens with the dawn, opens his eyes and looks closely at his world. He admires all that surrounds him, large and small, from the radiant sun to a tiny, but exquisite, ladybug. Gentle and lyrical, Look and Be Grateful is a simple expression of gratitude, ideal to share with the youngest readers and adults alike.

This authentic, loving celebration of gratitude & community—written by a citizen of the Cherokee nation—follows celebrations and experiences through the seasons of a year, underscoring the traditions and ways of Cherokee life.

What are you grateful for? That is precisely the question that Hailey Bartholomew asked herself every day for a year. Struggling with depression, she reached out for help and received life-changing advice: Find something every day that you are grateful for. Embracing her assignment, Hailey used her talents as a photographer to put a twist on the exercise, taking pictures of her “gratefuls” and becoming more aware that her depression was lifting in the process. 365 Gratefuls is a collection of photographs recounting Hailey’s transformation from depression to an unhindered appreciation of the world around her, combined with stories and images from many others who have encountered the effects of gratitude. This uplifting book will inspire you to look at the world with new eyes, emphasizing gratitude over anxiety in everyday moments.

The Wilbur Award-winning book Grateful is now available in paperback and with an updated subtitle. If gratitude is good, why is it so hard to do? In Grateful, Diana Butler Bass untangles our conflicting understandings of gratitude and sets the table for a renewed practice of giving thanks. We know that gratitude is good, but many of us find it hard to sustain a meaningful life of gratefulness. Four out of five Americans report feeling gratitude on a regular basis, but those private feelings seem disconnected from larger concerns of our public lives. In Grateful, cultural observer and theologian Diana Butler Bass takes on this “gratitude gap” and offers up surprising, relevant, and powerful insights to practice gratitude. Bass, author of the award-winning Grounded and ten other books on spirituality and culture, explores the transformative, subversive power of gratitude for our personal lives and in communities. Using her trademark blend of historical research, spiritual insights, and timely cultural observation, she shows how we can overcome this gap and make change in our own lives and in the world. With honest stories and heartrending examples from history and her own life, Bass reclaims gratitude as a path to greater connection with god, with others, with the world, and even with our own souls. It’s time to embrace a more radical practice of gratitude—the virtue that heals us and helps us thrive.

One recent December, at age 53, John Kralik found his life at a terrible, frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful second divorce; he had grown distant from his two older children and was afraid he might lose contact with his young daughter; he was living in a tiny apartment where he froze in the winter and baked in the summer; he was 40 pounds overweight; his girlfriend had just broken up with him; and overall, his dearest life dreams--including hopes of upholding idealistic legal principles and of becoming a judge--seemed to have slipped beyond his reach. Then, during a desperate walk in the hills on New Year's Day, John was struck by the belief that his life might become at least tolerable if, instead of focusing on what he didn't have, he could find some way to be grateful for what he had. Inspired by a beautiful, simple note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for his Christmas gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set himself a goal--come what may--of writing 365 thank-you notes in the coming year. One by one, day after day, he began to handwrite thank yous--for gifts or kindnesses he'd received from loved ones and coworkers, from past business associates and current foes, from college friends and doctors and store clerks and handymen and neighbors, and anyone, really, absolutely anyone, who'd done him a good turn, however large or small. Immediately after he'd sent his very first notes, significant and surprising benefits began to come John's way--from financial gain to true friendship, from weight loss to inner peace. While John wrote his notes, the economy collapsed, the bank across the street from his office failed, but thank-you note by thank-you note, John's whole life turned around. 365 Thank Yous is a rare memoir: its touching, immediately accessible message--and benefits--come to readers from the plainspoken storytelling of an ordinary man. Kralik sets a believable, doable example of how to live a miraculously good life. To read 365 Thank Yous is to be changed.

Kiko is a gardener. She takes care of her garden with seeds, soil, water, and sunshine. In Grow Happy, Kiko also demonstrates how she cultivates happiness, just like she does in her garden. Using positive psychology and choice theory, this book shows children that they have the tools to nurture their own happiness and live resiliently. Includes a “Note to Parents and Caregivers” with information on how our choices and paying attention to our bodies and feelings affects happiness.

"A boy awakes with the dawn and expresses gratitude for this unique day"--

A GRATITUDE book for children to help them to think about what they are grateful for and why. Being grateful for our bodies is one of the most important things we can do in our lives. Let's teach our children while they are young that our bodies are awesome and how we can feel gratitude for them. Beautifully illustrated and laid out to help them learn to say THANK YOU for our bodies or whatever we are grateful for! I have learned that being grateful for what we have, even if it is the littlest things, helps us feel lighter, shine brighter, and have a more positive outlook on life. Naming the thing we are grateful for, closing our eyes and feeling how grateful we are and why, and then saying thank you three times really puts us into a positive perspective. As you read this book with your children, ask them what they are grateful for and why. You will be surprised at the beauty of gratitude that lies within them . . . and you!