Good Reads Q&A: This Children’s Book Brings Social-Emotional Learning to Life in Technicolor

By Eliza Pillsbury in 40 Acres, Good Reads, Nov | Dec 2024 on October 31, 2024 at 4:01 pm | No Comments

The mystic poet Rumi wrote “The Guest House” about personifying complex emotions as visitors to one’s body—but this can be a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around, especially for children who might not have the language yet for what they are feeling. Inspired by this ancient wisdom as well as modern social-emotional learning, Texas Ex (and proud former Texas Exes employee) Amber Byfield, BJ ’05, has brought together her editorial experience and yoga training in a delightful, compassionate children’s book.   

The story follows young Jojo as she moves through a day, from home to school to the rock-climbing gym, welcoming different emotions as friends. Self-published and selected by Kickstarter as a “Project We Love,” Jojo’s Heart Party is valuable not only for children, but also for the adults in their lives.  

What made you decide to write this book?  

After working as a children’s yoga teacher for a long time, I knew that [class] could be inaccessible for people, whether it was the cost or the timing of it or just the challenge of getting a child out of the door at a prescribed time on a weekend. I wanted to create a resource for parents, caregivers, or teachers so that they could use the social-emotional strategies [of yoga] at home or in the classroom.  

Why did you choose a children’s book as the medium for a topic that even adults can have trouble voicing?  

My overarching project is called Wisdom at Play, which is the notion that, when we tap into our innate, joyful, playful selves, we can access the best and deepest wisdom that we are actually born with. All children can access the presence of mind it takes to be fully in the moment, and when we as adults tap back into that, we’re so much more equipped to access deeper joy, fulfillment, and contentment.  

This is something that I experienced with my own daughter, who has had big feelings her entire life. I’ll be looking at a rainbow, but I’m looking at it from a 3-year-old’s perspective, and oh my God, it is the most amazing thing! And then in teaching children’s yoga, too, you see these tiny beings, and they just come in the room, and they have no agenda. They have no worries. They are just really, truly in the moment, and I thought, How can I share that with more people?   

And there’s all this science that the more we play, we actually develop neuroplasticity in our brains. Kids’ brains are making these new connections all the time because they’re engaged in risk-taking through play. If you have a playful mindset, then you’re helping your brain make all these neural connections, and there’s just no end to how good that can be for you.  

Illustrations are often very important for children’s books. How did you come to work with your illustrator?   

When we were putting together the Kickstarter campaign, I realized exactly who would be a wonderful illustrator for the book. Her name is Anna Kamburis, and she and I were in children’s yoga teacher training together and kept in touch over the years. She’s an art teacher, she also has a daughter, and her style is very vibrant and whimsical. And I knew she would get it from a feeling heart perspective.  

[The process] was a lot of fun and very collaborative. I had been in roles before where it was my job to translate a creative brief, so I thought this would still be in my wheelhouse. But it was a completely new experience, and both Anna and I learned so much. She landed an agent after the book came out, so she’s working on more books, and it’s exciting to have had that experience and to see her getting propelled into her art career even more.  

What has the process of self-publishing been like?  

I really appreciate that question. I had a lot of fear around self-publishing, like somehow it would make my book less worthy of being out there. But I also know how much work I put into it. It’s something I am very proud of, and I very much want it to be out in the world. I don’t have a lot of time or resources to devote to marketing, but it’s been a lot of fun to drop it off at local businesses. And now it’s on a shelf next to Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon because my last name is close [alphabetically] to her last name! It never occurred to me what it would feel like to see my book and byline next to such an iconic children’s book.   

It’s lovely to have my name and Anna’s name on it, but even more so to know that there are so many people who helped make it a very real thing. I have immense gratitude to my husband, Whit, and to so many teachers and supporters. Dorothy [Guerrero] and Chad [Tomlinson, both of the Alcalde editorial staff,] swooped in to help me at the eleventh hour.   

There were also a lot of kids who read it early on—including one precocious 4-year-old who had a very good edit. There are a lot of children in our neighborhood, and this weekend a few zipped by our house on bikes, and one of them just looks back while pedaling and goes, “I really like Jojo’s Heart Party!” It’s been a real joy. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.