Catching Thoughts

This bright tale of a girl determined to escape a negative thought that keeps following her around encourages mindfulness and equips kids with the tools they need to successfully manage their emotions.

Have you ever had an unwelcome thought that you just couldn't get rid of, no matter how hard you tried to push it away?

In Catching Thoughts, a girl is plagued by an unwanted thought. No matter what she does--ignore it, yell at it, cry about it--the thought won't go away. Frustrated and discouraged, she finally looks that bad thought in the face and says, "Hello." At last, she is able to notice other more beautiful, positive thoughts all around her. As she catches hold of new thoughts, the girl discovers she can fill her mind with whatever she chooses.

For every child who has been weighed down by sadness or anxiety, this story teaches kids how to acknowledge unwanted thoughts, show them compassion, then actively replace them with positive thoughts instead. Catching Thoughts is a quiet, thoughtful story that teaches readers how to practice mindfulness, focusing on thoughts that bring beauty, joy, and calm into their lives.

Bonnie Clark lives in Canton, Georgia, with her husband and three children. She enjoys writing for children because she believes that childhood is the most important time in a person's life--the part that shapes who we become as adults. She believes that picture books are magical and can encourage children to love who they are, to look outside themselves, and to find their place in the world. Clark hopes her children (and others who read her books) will remember the messages and draw from them when they need to.

Summer Macon was raised in an itty-bitty town in southern New Mexico. As a child, she quickly became known as Tiger as this is how she would sign her homework next to the many doodles covering the pages. However, she has now decided to go by her real name and currently lives in an even smaller itty bitty town (population 32!) in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. In the summertime you can find her rock-climbing, paddle-boarding, mountain-biking, or doodling on her contracts.