What could be sweeter than storytime with Pops?
Maybe storytime via Facetime with Grammy?
Title: Kind Karl
Authors: Sharon Salzberg and Jason Gruhl
Illustrator: Sébastien Mourrain
Publisher: Bala Kids
Birth date: December 5, 2025
Suitable for: ages 4-8
Themes: kindness, mindfulness, feelings
Brief synopsis: Karl has a temper, so he snaps. A lot. That's what crocs do, he told himself, but might there be a better way to manage those big feelings that stop him from feeling happy?
Opening page: Karl lives in Orlando.
He loves cardigans, crepes, and combing his hair.
Resources: Visit Sharon Salzburg's blog {here}.
Read a Children's Book Review {here}.
Find some enrichment activities {here}.
Share these smiles with your little crocodiles.
Why I like this book: So many nuggets in this little treasure. I love how the authors weave feelings throughout the text. Explore scratchy emotions like embarrassed, scared, angry. Visualize the negative thoughts behind these feelings floating away on clouds.
Use it as a springboard for helping your own students process their feelings. Which of their emotions are big, sand-paperish, overwhelming, tough? Uncomfortable, hard, difficult, challenging?
What are their best strategies to keep from snapping,
and instead show kindness to themselves and others?
Work with them on adopting this truth:
We can't give away what we don't have.
Affirmations and mantras can help with self-kindness.
What other mindfulness practices might help?
Write a thank-you note to yourself for the ultimate self-kindness.
Check out this book, then head to Susanna Hill's blog
for this week's other picture perfect book picks.
Oh, and don't forget about World Kindness Day November 13.
What's your favorite way to show kindness to yourself?
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