Mindful Nature: Connecting with Our Great Green World

Reviewed by Rebecca Robinson

December 1, 2025

By Paige Towler. Magination Press, 2025. 32 pages. $21.99/hardcover; $9.99/eBook. Recommended for ages 4–8.

In this picture book, simple text written by Washington, D.C.-based poet Paige Towler sprawls across color-saturated photo spreads, gently teaching mindfulness along with basic lessons about the natural world. Although the term “grounding technique” is never used, that’s what each page teaches: to pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells, and textures around you, while also engaging the imagination as small children love to do.

Published by the American Psychological Association in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation, Mindful Nature offers opportunities for inquiry about different species of animals, their habits and natural habitats; four of five senses (taste not included); and a plethora of vivid descriptive words to teach the youngest readers what to observe about the creatures and natural features that share their world. Flowers are sweet-scented and dewy; sand is smooth; air is chilled; wings swish.

The book prompts readers to pretend to be a meerkat lying in the warm sand, or a snowy owl soaring through cold air. Opposite a stunning photo of the white bird mid-flight above snow, the words “Bring your wings up, up, up” curve in an upward line, while “and gently back down” slope downward beneath them. “Breathe in and out. Hoot softly . . .”

The sensuous but accessible language forms varied shapes across the pages in shifting, easy-to-read typeface, which, together with the satisfying visual imagery, makes a book that is lovely to look at and a good choice to read aloud in a group.

A “reader’s note” at the end by clinical child psychologist Julia Martin Burch provides greater detail for parents and teachers about what mindfulness is and how to use it with children.

Rebecca Robinson is a member of Richmond (Va.) Meeting. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a background in literature and journalism, she lives in Richmond with her husband and two daughters.