Andrea Miller
Andrea Miller is an editor at Lion’s Roar magazine. She has edited three anthologies, including Buddha’s Daughters, and is the author of Baby’s First Book of Canadian Birds. She lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and two children.
Books, Courses & Podcasts
The Day the Buddha Woke Up
The Day the Buddha Woke Up is a board book that will captivate children of all ages. It’s the perfect way to introduce young children to the story of the Buddha—the clear, gracefully written story puts the Buddha’s awakening into language children can understand.
The simple arc of the Buddha’s questions, his quest, and his ultimate understanding will provide a meaningful and peaceful story that children—and their parents!—will love returning to again and again.
Tara’s Colouring Book
Exquisite line drawings of the most important figures in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon: Shakyamuni Buddha, Chenrezig, Tara, Manjushri, and more. The artists provide detailed explanations of the figures as well as traditional coloring instructions. A great gift for meditators, fans of Himalayan art, or anyone who appreciates beauty. For all ages.
Happiness Doesn’t Come from Headstands
Leela loves to do yoga. She could do all sorts of poses, but there was one pose she couldn’t do. Every time Leela tried to do a headstand…KERPLUNK!
This book explores the themes of acceptance, resilience, and self-compassion and offers the message that just because we may experience a failure does not mean that we are a failure. Written as a counterpoint to the message of The Little Engine that Could, Happiness Doesn’t Come from Headstands is a story about a girl who tries her best, but still falls down. Through the process she learns that happiness is not determined by external achievement. Through accepting our limitations and celebrating our efforts, even in the face of failure, peace can be found.
Sitting Together
This three-volume set provides a complete curriculum for adults and children to learn about mindfulness, meditation, and Buddhist teachings together, either in the home, in partnership with other families, or with a local center.
The Adult Study Guide (280 pages) offers thirty-six lesson plans including meditation practices, homework, readings, and reflection questions for group study.
The Children’s Lesson Plans (296 pages), used in conjunction with the Adult Study Guide, provides step-by-step instructions for teachers on meditation exercises, stories, crafts, songs, and games.
The Activity Book (136 pages) is a perfect companion to enhance the children’s education with over 50 coloring pages, puzzles, and other fun activities.
This comprehensive curriculum for adults and children ages 3–12 has five units on meditation, kindness, ethics, character, and service. It is perfect for any family, Dharma center, yoga studio, or religious, educational, or community organization that wants to incorporate a mindfulness program for children and their families.
Check out MindfulFamilies.net: mindfulness, meditation, and Buddhist resources for families >>
The Story of Mu
In the beginning, before the beginning, there was Mu.
And Mu was Mu and that was that and it was good.
This lush, beautifully illustrated narrative breathes humanity and warmth into one of the most famous and enigmatic koans of the Zen tradition.
The Story of Mu uses luminous illustrations and a mythic narrative structure to convey the great potential for peace and enlightenment that we all carry hidden within ourselves. Shot through with ineffable “thisness and thusness,” Mu spins a visually rich, cosmogonic fable about the origins of the universe of space, time, matter, and life. It also touches something lost but always present within the human heart: an awakeness that is without flaw, from the beginning before the beginning.
Includes a complementary essay from Zen teacher James Ishmael Ford.
Click here to flip through The Story of Mu.
Just Me and My Mind
Young children have strong emotions, but often are unsure of how to articulate and handle them. Just Me and My Mind aims to help kids recognize their emotions and thoughts—and then act accordingly. The book includes interactive pages of emotions (happy, scared, sad, loving, angry). The reader pulls an image of the emotion from the mind of the child, helping the reader to understand why emotions might arise. The book continues by illustrating how children can “clean out and settle” their minds with quiet contemplation.
How to use this book:
It’s easy! Just pull the tab in our hero’s head. A thought will appear, illustrating the cause of the current emotion.
My New Best Friend
“I have a new best friend. I’ve known her my whole life, but we only just became friends.”
When people we care about are having a hard time, we usually treat them with kindness and understanding—yet when we are the ones having a hard time, we are often quick to be unkind. We may get angry and impatient with ourselves, even calling ourselves nasty names. My New Best Friend invites children to break free of this pattern of “inner bullying,” helping them treat themselves with kindness and understanding—laying the groundwork for emotional resilience, self-compassion, and positive self-esteem.
“This is an absolutely delightful book that perfectly delivers the message of self-compassion in a way that is fun and easy to understand for kids. Parents who buy this book for their children will be giving them a gift to last a lifetime!”
—Kristin Neff, Ph.D, author of Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself
