Available at the usual haunts online (everywhere!), and in person at Alice, Ever After Books (Buffalo, NY); Kensington Row Book Shop (Kensington, MD); SW7 (Kensington, MD), Joyful Studio (La Plata, MD) and Prairiewoods (Hiawatha, IA). Also, signed copies are available from Etsy.
As You Grow I Want You To Know (Wisdom Nuggets, Vol 1: Self)
This book explores the universal knowings of dignity, connection, and wholeness meant to help children amplify their sacred, internal glow. Focusing on social / emotional development, its vivid pages are playful in spirit and can be enjoyed at different levels of understanding. This book contains a new, rhyming “wisdom nugget” on each of 15 spreads that supports the reader’s self-confidence, mindfulness, and feelings of positivity. These messages are captured with colorful, happy landscapes and dreamlike, slightly-undefined animals which encourage the reader to stay creative and flexible. The last page invites readers and grown-ups to create their very own wisdom nugget in the space provided among the named characters from the book.
A is for Alligator... And Other Information to Entertain You
Let's learn our ABCs, but let's make it beautiful! An ABC book to learn, delight, and start conversations. In Jackie Adrian's signature, acrylic, collage style, she has brought her collages to life with the alphabet. The letters, paired with vivid collage, capture the focus of the young learner. Each letter collage is detailed with a small, few sentence long story about the letter subject. "B is for Bird. Meet Wes. He likes to give compliments. By the way, you are looking so lovely today." The descriptions are whimsical, a little off-kilter, and always inclusive. "F is for Flamingo. Meet Ruby. They like to swim with crocs. Nelson is their best friend."
Wisdom Nuggets for Relationships, Wherever You Grow I Want You To Know
The intention of this book is to show, wherever we grow, humans have quite similar ideas about the best way to maintain healthy relationships. We may look, talk, and eat differently, but the ways to love and respect one another have strong, universal threads. Jackie Adrian's first wisdom nugget book (As You Grow I Want You To Know) reminds us of the universal wisdom of self-love. This book expands our collection of wisdom nuggets by exploring the world (quite literally) of relationships.
Each of the 15-page spreads show a) a grown up and child in different parts of the world, b) a wisdom nugget, and c) an interesting fact or cultural phrase pertaining to the country visited on the page spread (and loosely to the featured wisdom nugget as well). Culture changes quickly, by meters or minutes. This text took many measures to be inclusive and correct by soliciting many cultural experts to help verify each page's accuracy, but please keep the changing nature of culture in mind as you enjoy each page.
The wisdom nuggets all start with the phrase, "Wherever you grow, I want you to know," to connect the reader with the idea that these wisdom nuggets are universally true for all humans. In our current world that could benefit from more positivity, celebration of diversity, and understanding of each other, this book will give families and schools a resource for promoting healthy boundary work in little, digestible nuggets. The book is illustrated with original, hand-painted, collage art.
A Chameleon Tale (co-author: Sarah Collins, MSOT, OTR/L)
At any moment in time, we are taking in information about our world through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin, and joints. This, sensory processing, is how we experience our world and is unique to each person. Our job as parents, caregivers, and adults in influential roles is not only to take notice of our own sensory systems, but to help
children do the same. The goal of this manuscript is to bring awareness to this topic and supply tools for discussion. We, the authors, in a real-life OT session, realized the need for this book when Sarah didn't have a children's book to recommend for Jackie's child. Jackie had already completed two children's books and said, "Well, let's create what we need!"
A Chameleon Tale uses the changing color of the chameleons' skin, differing facial expressions, and a variety of actions to illustrate how a sensory threshold can influence individual alertness. Likewise, as humans, our bodies, expressions, and actions also reflect specific levels of alertness. This text, accompanied by the demonstrative changing colors of skin, prompts children to recognize that this fluctuation is normal. Further, it helps communicate that there are tools to help when feelings (derived by our sensory inputs) impact their success in what they need and want to do. The book's characters, our chameleon family, will journey outside of their familiar environment, something we ask our kids to do most days of the year. Notice how this seemingly simple task affects each chameleon differently.
The more experts (like co-author Sarah Collins, MSOT, OTR/L) learn about neurodiversity and the brain / body response to environmental stimuli, the greater they are realizing people process and integrate sensory stimuli differently. Through this story, the readers will gain a better understanding of their own brain / body connection and honor their unique responses while simultaneously empathizing with other's responses in the same environmental situations. Though every child and caregiver combo will benefit from communicating about their sensory needs, this book will be especially helpful for the neurodivergent community and their families. Use this book as a starting point for conversation with the children in your life.
Font: Avenir (visual scanning and dyslexia-friendly)
Age Group Suggestion: 6-11 years
Page Illustration from A Chameleon Tale about sensory processing. All Rights Reserved.