Children’s Books For Adult Stress

Why should those little crumb-crushers have all the fun?

You know you have to take time out each day for stress management, or "me time" or whatever you want to call it. The benefits to your health and your sanity are numerous. But perhaps it’s work for you to stay still. Your brain is a perpetual rebel at meditation and you can’t even relax in a bath without worrying about how much the water is going to cost you. For you, trying to relax is just as much work as work. Children’s books for adult stress are for you. They are familiar, absorbing, short and help your smile even when you are in the grumpiest of moods.

The Kind Of Book You’re Looking For

The best of children’s books for adult stress have similar qualities. These are the kind of books you want to watch out for, whether at the library, a book sale or raiding your kids’ shelves:

They can be read at one sitting (about ten or fifteen minutes long).
They have a lot of illustrations you can stare at and get lost in.
They don’t deal with death or taxes.
They have a happy ending (this is key to keep you relaxed).

Now, granted, not everyone is going to like the same kind of children’s books for adult stress that another person does. If reading about death and taxes relaxes you, go for it. Just try to avoid anything that would make you cry or give you nightmares. A good children’s book almost has a bizarre logic to it that makes perfect sense in the book (such as using an umbrella in a stiff wind to cross the Atlantic) and yet is completely illogical elsewhere.

Suggested Reading List

I’ve been told I have strange tastes in literature, but I’ve got a feeling a majority of grown-ups will enjoy at least some of these children’s books for adult stress.

The Mountain That Loved A Bird by Alice McLerran. My favorite book.
Be Nice To Spiders by Margaret Bloy Graham. A true good kicks butt over evil story.
The Magic Carousel by Dorothy Levenson. Has a different meaning for me as an adult than when I first read it when I was a toddler.
Almost anything recommended by Reading Rainbow. In fact, if you can get a PBS station that shows it, just tape a series and watch an episode during your "me time".

Hope this helps.

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