Thank You for the Little Things
Caryl Hart and Emily Hamilton
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

‘Whenever I am feeling sad / or life feels hard or wrong or bad, / I focus for a little while … // on little things / that make me smile.’ So says the small girl narrator as she runs through the park at the start of this book.
She goes on to thank some small things she encounters on that particular day. There’s a ladybird, daisies – ‘each flower like a TINY sun / with petal rays around each one’; the playful dog that accompanies her.

Stopping for a while in the playground, she thanks the swings for the feelings they engender; the mud with its wonderful squishy squelching feel, and a strong stick. Then back home she makes pictures of some of the things she’s enjoyed, reminding herself to look forward to further possibilities of the little things.

Homely things – spicy noodles, dribble ice-cream, bath time bubbles and more are mentioned, and it’s great to see she appreciates the book she shares with her parent. Come bedtime, it’s time to thank the stars and last of all, her snuggly teddybear.

Caryl’s gentle rhyming text, together with Emily Hamilton’s gorgeous illustrations of the small girl and the things she says thank you to, offer a way into mindfulness with little ones as well as showing the importance of looking out for things to appreciate even when days might feel a bit grey and dismal .
As we emerge from Covid gloom it’s particularly important not to forget these ‘Little Things’.