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Using a strategy of great teachers, Kathleen Aharoni has created a Parable to describe a spiritual event easily understood by children. And what is simpler than a breath? Or what is less complicated, yet life-giving and full of creative energy?
Recognized with an Eric Hoffer Finalist award, this playful book contains an important message. Its thirty-two pages are seamlessly arranged in two sections. The first section is the search for a lost breath. Beginning the next section with remembrance and re-acquaintance, the author finishes with inhaled/exhaled self-discovery. The book is illustrated throughout, including hard cover and jacket, with water color panels by Ann Boyd. The text alternately marches in orderly fashion across the pastel panels or flies on the wind of intense color and expelled breath. Prose chosen by the author directs the reader's breathing. Starting with little emphasis, then from whisper to roar, it reaches a crescendo with capitalized letters. On returning the reader to the scene of his or her first breath, the words become calming and are deliberately in cadence with the breathing exercises designed for children.
A comment by her son, Gabe, sparked the author to start a search to recover her own breath—in a tangled world where labels like "mother" and "wife" entwined and trapped her real self. Aharoni now shares this discovery, both in the book and in activities that present teaching moments for parents and educators. The interest age level is 3-7. Page numbers are not used, perhaps on purpose to create a timeless parable.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review