The Power of Empathy - Book Review

Title: The Power of Empathy; Be the Friend You've Always Wanted

Author: Ruth Maille

Illustrator: Prayan Animation Studio

Publisher: BooksGoSocial

Publication Date: October 12, 2023

Length: 36 Pages

Children's Fiction

About the Author
Ruth Maille is the author of the multi-award-winning books in "The Power of…" series. Her interactive books focus on character traits that are essential to social and emotional learning.

Empathy is a Caring SuperPower
Orbit is a storyteller who looks like a walking world globe. He visits the children in a park and tells them about a superpower called EMPATHY. The children learn that empathy means understanding and also caring about how someone else is feeling.

The children also learn why it is important to talk about our emotions. There are both happy and unhappy emotions. 

Before leaving, Orbit reminds the children to be the friend they've always wanted.

My Thoughts
This book is a wonderful story to teach children about empathy. I like the way the characters are a diverse group of different races, nationalities, and children with physical disabilities.

The illustrations are beautiful and add value to the text. 

Empathy is not something that comes naturally to everyone. However, it is a skill that can be developed and improved over time. By practicing empathy, we can improve our emotional intelligence and build more meaningful relationships with others. 

Recommended for children of all ages.

MY RATING: 5 Stars Out Of 5

Thank you to NetGalley for an excellent reading opportunity.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please FOLLOW and share your thoughts in the COMMENTS section below.

Seven Stories of Christmas Love by Leo Buscaglia - A Review

Seven Stories of Christmas Love

By: Leo Buscaglia, PhD

Illustrator: Tom Newsom

Publisher: Slack Incorporated

Date of Publication: June 1, 1987

Length: 110 Pages


About the Author
Felice Leonardo "Leo" Buscaglia PhD, also known as "Dr. Love," was an American author and motivational speaker, and a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California. His dynamic speaking style was discovered by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and his televised lectures earned great popularity in the 1980s. At one point his talks, always shown during fund raising periods, were the top earners of all PBS programs. Dr. Buscaglia died of a heart attack on June 12, 1998.

The Spirit of Christmas is Love
This book features the following short stories about the author's Christmas memories:

A Christmas Morning Memory - A story about Leo's poor Italian  immigrant family and a lesson in forgiveness and love.

Two Festivals of Light - Leo and his family share Christmas dinner with their new Jewish neighbors.

A Gift of Ravioli - When Leo was a boy, he had a crush on the public librarian. He only had some of his mother's homemade ravioli to give her at Christmas, but that was enough.

The Christmas Story According to Big Matthew - A humorous story about Leo directing the Christmas pageant when he was a young elementary school teacher.

A Santa Suit Does Not a Santa Claus Make - Leo is recruited to be the school Santa Claus when the school custodian fell ill.

No Room at the Inn - Leo shares the Christmas story during a magical trip to Bali on Christmas Eve.

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't - Leo finds himself in the hospital recovering from a heart attack and quintuple heart bypass surgery on Christmas day, 1992. This does not stop him from spreading love to fellow members of the "Open Heart Club."

 My Thoughts
I remember watching Dr. Leo Buscaglia on PBS and reading his books in the 1980s. When I saw this book at the library sale, I was immediately drawn to it. This little book does an amazing job defining the true meaning of Christmas. The author tells how each of the Christmas memories he shared in this book reinforced his beliefs in the value of caring and love.

I can't choose a favorite story from this book...I loved them all. The illustrations are lovely and add value to the stories.

The spirit of Christmas is love. Each of the seven stories in this book emphasized the importance of family, friendship, caring, sharing and love. "Dr. Love" was a great inspiration to all who heard him speak and read his books.

I highly recommend this book to older children and adults. 
It is a short book that packs a mighty punch. You will want to read it each year to remind you of the true meaning of the season.

My Rating: 5 Stars Out Of 5

FYI ~ I found this book on the quarter shelf at a Friends of the Library sale.

Thank you for reading my book review. Please join my family of blog subscribers and share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Gracenomics

Yesterday I read Gracenomics: Unleash The Power Of Second Chance Living by Mike Foster.  Mr. Foster is founder of "People Of The Second Chance", a movement of people committed to showing unexpected, excessive and scandalous amounts of grace.  The author defines grace as "the act of giving favor when it is not required."  Gracenomics combines this definition of grace with the term "economics".  So,  gracenomics is defined as the science that deals with the production, distribution and consumption of grace.
This is a short, simple book that could easily be read in a couple of hours. Mr. Foster explains that our society has become a "vulture culture".  People love to hear about people who are humiliated and weakened by scandal, addiction and failure.  Not only do other people tear us down, but we also do a pretty good job on ourselves by failing to forgive and move on from mistakes and failures.  The author calls this "chewing on ourselves."  People are often caught up in a victim's mentality and tend to relive the trauma over and over again.  It may be time to escape from Victimville and head on down to Gracetown. Once you accept your failures, you may come to see them less like disasters and more like the driving force behind future successes.
Gracenomics for others is based on adopting this perspective; People are not evil, They are weak. People choose meanness out of impaired vision and skewed understanding.  A reality of the human species is that we love to judge, label and assess value.  Mother Teresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."  If we have empathy for others, then grace and forgiveness will prevail.
The last part of this book deals with Gracenomics at work.  Mr. Foster empahsizes the importance of being a good listener.  "Gracenomics says wherever you are, be fully there."  The author cites Zappos as a business that found success by listening to their customers and expressing a caring attitude.  The author believes that accountability and truth must be required of everyone in a leadership position. 
The author invites us to give second chance living a shot.  The world could really use the transforming power of forgiveness and grace. 
The People of the Second Chance have a fan page on Facebook and Mike Foster is on Twitter.
I think this book is definitly worth the time you will spend reading it.  It will open your mind and heart to all kinds of opportunities to give grace a chance.