Soothing Stories for Grown-up Hearts: When I Accept Myself by Laura Linn Knight

This review first appeared on Reader Views. Read the Reader Views version here.

Join a thoughtful monkey on a deep and immersive dive into the wonderful ocean. Take in author Laura Linn Knight’s reflective and loving words as the monkey journeys all around and encounters different sea life. After the monkey emerges from the calming waters, Knight describes four tools for self-acceptance: Jar of Mistakes, Finding Your Strengths, Self Compassion, and Mindful Like the Mountain. The picture book for adults and teens rounds off with the thoughtful addition of a coloring page.

Not enough can be said about the wonderfulness of the artwork by illustrator Sara Tomate. Tomate’s work is soothing, vibrant, and moving—not always an easy combination to pull off. The illustrations perfectly complement Knight’s prose in Soothing Stories for Grown-up Hearts: When I Accept Myself, part of the Soothing Stories for Grown-Up Hearts series, demonstrating ideas not literally, but symbolically, yet not too abstractly—again, a delicate balance was struck. The addition of a coloring page not only invites readers to a calming activity but also allows them to feel involved in this impeccable art.

While a picture book is not a conventional medium for teens and adults, I thought it worked quite well. This is assisted by the aforementioned and praised artwork, but since the goal of the book is to provide readers with a moment of calm, inner-child healing, and self-acceptance, a picture book works incredibly well. Reading picture books is a fond memory for many and so it’s easy to tap back into that self that was charmed by being read to and find some peace, help, and mindfulness.

However, Knight does not stop at providing a calming read—she equips readers with practical tools. Each explored tool is thoughtfully explained and demonstrated in the final sections of the book. This allows readers to first center themselves through the reading of the reflective prose and then, with that centered- and reflective-self ready, dip into tools they can carry with them. With how they are clearly explained and labeled, Soothing Stories for Grown-up Hearts: When I Accept Myself is an ideal guide.

Soothing Stories for Grown-up Hearts: When I Accept Myself by Laura Linn Knight is lovely, mindful, reflective, beautiful, and practical. I highly recommend it.

Soothing Stories for Grown-up Hearts: When I Accept Myself by Laura Linn Knight, Independently Published