My Thoughts Have Wings

In My Thoughts Have Wings, a child describes how it feels to go to bed at night and find scary thoughts flapping about in her mind: spiders in the house, scary dreams, or bigger kids being mean at school. The child’s mother explains that thoughts are like birds. Some fly away quickly and some stay and nest. While everyone worries, the child needs to make space for happy thoughts to nest. So the child imagine happy moments like eating ice cream at the beach or visiting grandparents. Pretty soon, the happy thoughts roost, and the child falls asleep, smiling.

It can break a caregiver’s heart to see troubled thoughts make sleep difficult for a child. Here, New York Times best-selling poet and author Maggie Smith gives caregivers a wholesome, gentle way to approach to the fears and gives children a method to ease their anxieties. Leanne Hatch’s illustrations perfectly capture both the scary thoughts and joyful ones. In a world that is often scary for both children and adults, My Thoughts Have Wings provides a reassuring antidote.