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Ramentales
Invented example: Leo in "The Northern Lights", the cover

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BooksWatercolourAges 3–8Coming soon

The Northern Lights

In a snowy village in the far north, a little fox and your child learn that the lights come to those who can wait.

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Helps with

Big feelings

Impatience and the fizzy feeling of waiting: learning to settle, one slow breath and three stars at a time.

The tool your child practises in the story

Breathe in like falling snow, breathe out like a cloud, count three stars

Sit together and breathe in slowly through the nose, imagining snow falling softly. Breathe out through the mouth in a long, gentle puff, like a little cloud. Then find three stars together: real ones in the sky, three things in the room, or three fingers. Do it two or three times. It works best when you practise it on easy days, so your child can reach for it when waiting gets hard.

Page 26: For grown-ups. Every book ends with a page for you: what the story is about, how to talk about it, questions to ask and how to use the tool.

For grown-ups

What this story is about

Waiting is one of the hardest things for a young child: a long car journey, a birthday that is still weeks away, a turn on the swing. Impatience can feel like fizzing, prickling or crossness inside. In this story your child longs to see the northern lights, tries every way to hurry the night, and learns a small waiting game from a wise old owl. When the feeling has calmed, the lights come, and your child passes the game on to some even more impatient little hares.

Three ways to talk about it

  • Name the feeling: "Waiting feels fizzy and cross, doesn't it? That's because you really, really want it."
  • Play the waiting game at calm moments first, so it is ready when waiting gets hard: at the doctor's, in a queue, before a treat.
  • Make waiting visible: count sleeps on a calendar, turn a sand timer, or notice three things you can hear while you wait.

Three questions to ask

  • How did the child in the story feel while waiting for the lights? Where in the body did they feel it?
  • What did they try to make the night go faster? Did it work?
  • What helped in the end? When could you play the waiting game?

Practise the tool together: Breathe in like falling snow, breathe out like a cloud, count three stars

Sit together and breathe in slowly through the nose, imagining snow falling softly. Breathe out through the mouth in a long, gentle puff, like a little cloud. Then find three stars together: real ones in the sky, three things in the room, or three fingers. Do it two or three times. It works best when you practise it on easy days, so your child can reach for it when waiting gets hard.

If impatience or frustration often turns into long meltdowns, or your child finds it very hard to wait or settle in many everyday situations, it is worth talking to your paediatrician or a child psychologist.

Look inside

Twelve illustrated spreads: the picture on the left, the story on the right. These sample pages show an invented child called Leo.

  • Invented example: Leo in "The Northern Lights", page 3

    On the old fence sat Mrs Moonfeather, a big snowy owl in a little blue scarf. "Hoo," she said softly. "The lights never come to fidgets. Try my waiting game. Breathe in like falling snow, slow and soft. Breathe out like a cloud. Then count three stars." Leo breathed in. Dash breathed out. "One star, two st... is it time yet?" Mrs Moonfeather blinked her golden eyes. "Not yet, my dears. Not yet."

  • So Leo sat down in the snow, and Dash sat down too. Breathe in like falling snow: slow... soft... Breathe out like a cloud: whoooo. A little white cloud floated away. Count three stars: one... two... three. They did it again. And again. The fizzy feeling began to settle, like snow in a snow globe. Now Leo could hear tiny things: the hush of the hill, the creak of the pine, Dash's soft breathing.

  • And then the whole sky came alive. Green swirled into pink, pink rippled into purple, and great shining curtains of light swayed and twirled above Frostvale, as if the night itself were dancing. "Ohhh," breathed Leo. "Ohhh," breathed Dash. Mrs Moonfeather fluffed her feathers and gave one happy "Hoo!" It was worth every single minute.

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The styles it will be drawn in