A book about feelings for kids · Main age range: 4–9 years
Ben y la tierra: a book about feelings, to read and talk about together.
A book so that you and your child can learn together to recognize and talk about joy, sadness, fear and anger; to notice the thoughts that come with them; and to find out what you can do with what you feel.
Without making a feeling smaller than it is, and without turning it into a drama. With stories, questions and tools to work through together.
The book is sold through different channels depending on the country. Price, shipping and availability are shown by whichever store you choose.
What is Ben y la tierra, la magia de sentir?
It is a book to work through together. Through stories, questions and tools, kids and adults can learn to recognize what they feel, put words to it, notice the thoughts that show up and find out what to do with all of it.
And we adults get a way of being there for them without having to know what to say every time.
The book is not trying to hand you perfect answers. It is trying to help the two of you open up conversations and build a shared language for what happens to us: a space where feelings are allowed to be there and can turn into words, questions and moments together. That is where the important part happens.
What tends to happen
Why a book about feelings for kids.
Your child comes home from school with a face like thunder and answers everything with “nothing.” Or falls apart over the wrong yogurt and you cannot tell whether to hold the limit or hold him. Or says “I hate you” and it lands harder than you would admit out loud.
Sometimes it is not that he does not want to tell you. It is that he does not yet know what is going on inside, or cannot find the words for it. Nobody is born knowing how to say “I am frustrated” or “I am scared you will leave.”
And it is not always easy for adults either: to come close without taking over, to listen without rushing to fix, to stay with something that stirs us up too. That is learned as well.
So Ben y la tierra is not only a set of stories about feelings. Its dialogues help you ask questions that are not there to hand a child a ready-made answer, but to invite him to notice, to name, to think and to find answers of his own.
Little by little, those questions can stay with you outside the book. And that is where the conversation between the two of you starts to change.
What is inside
It is not a story to finish in one sitting. It is a book to come back to: read, talk, try out the tools and build a shared language a little at a time.
Illustrated stories
Ben discovers his feelings, the thoughts that come with them and different ways he can respond.
A guide for the adult
Ideas, questions and pointers for being with each feeling without having to have the answer every time.
Practical tools
Ways to understand what is going on inside, get a little distance, make room for calm and choose what to do with what we feel and with what matters to us.
Room to understand and to talk
At the end of each story there is a space for the feeling you have just been through: a short explanation, questions to understand better what is happening and suggested actions to take into everyday life. They are an invitation to notice what we feel, get some distance and discover different ways of responding.
Emotional connection cards for talking as a family
If you have searched for “emotional connection cards,” you are probably after something very specific: questions you can use right away that open a real conversation with your kids, without it feeling like an interrogation.
Ben y la tierra comes with a bonus set of connection cards made exactly for opening those conversations. They arrive by email and you can print them or use them straight from your phone.
They are short prompts you can use one at a time, in any order, in the moments you already have together. They are not there to test what your child feels or to get the right answer, but to open a chance to talk, listen and get to know each other a little better.
How the cards are sent
The book is sold through other platforms, so there is no way from here to know who has bought it. That is why the cards are sent on request: this page will have a form where you can leave your name, your email and your proof of purchase, and they will reach you by email.
That form is still being built. In the meantime, if you already have the book, you can ask for the cards from the contact page and attach your proof of purchase.
These connection cards are a separate material, different from the pages for understanding and talking that are printed at the end of each chapter of the book.
Take the first step
A shared language for what you both feel.
The stories, the questions and the tools are there so the two of you can name what happens inside, without having to have the right answer every time.
Several stores · Price, shipping and availability depend on the country
Where it came from
Who wrote it
I wrote this book as several things at once: a mom, an author and an existential coach trained in logotherapy.
Many of the questions, conversations and tools you will find here came out of trying to bring into our own life what I had learned about feelings, thoughts and meaning. First they found a place in our home, and later in my work with other mothers.
So this book did not come only from what I know. It came from what we have lived.
Choose where to buy it
The book is available through several stores. Price, shipping costs and availability depend on the country and on the seller you choose.
Spain
Colombia
In Colombia you can find it at La Editora Market, Librería Nacional and Buscalibre.
Other countries
You can find Ben y la tierra, la magia de sentir on Buscalibre and Amazon. Availability and shipping terms depend on the country and are shown on each platform.
ISBN 9786280168630 · 104 pages · Paperback · 19.05 × 23.5 cm · Spanish · Main age range 4–9 years.
A free resource to start today
Five difficult moments, five tools
Tantrums, fights between siblings, screens, mornings when you are already late and the constant demand for attention. Five real situations with one concrete tool for each: what to say and what to do when you are not sure where to start.
It is 14 pages, a ten-minute read, and it has nothing to do with buying the book.
Frequently asked questions about the book
Frequently asked questions about Ben y la tierra
What age is it for?
It is mainly written for kids between 4 and 9. How you read it, the questions that come up and the tools you use can be adapted to each child’s age and to where they are right now. You can also use it at other ages, even to understand your own feelings as an adult.
What if my child will not sit still and listen?
A story does not have to be finished in one go. You can read a little, stop at an illustration, ask a question or pick it up another day. The point is not to finish the book: the point is to find moments to connect.
Do I need to know about emotions to use it?
No. It is written so that you can discover them together. The stories, explanations, questions and tools carry the conversation without asking you to have all the answers. Sometimes one good question and a bit of listening is enough.
Can it help during a separation, a loss or another hard situation?
The book helps build an emotional language in everyday situations. That language can also help when something hard arrives, but the book is not an assessment and it is not treatment. If a child or a family needs professional care, the book can sit alongside it, never in its place.
Can I use it in a classroom or in my practice?
Yes. Ben y la tierra can be used as a resource in educational and professional settings to open conversations about feelings, thoughts and the different ways of responding.
What it proposes rests on logotherapy and on its way of understanding a human being: a person who can step back from what they feel and think, understand themselves, recognize what is valuable and choose how to respond. That is why the stories do not offer ready-made answers. Through questions, dialogue and tools, they invite the child to notice, to express, to understand what is happening and to discover his own ways of responding.
In a classroom or in a session, each story can become a starting point to talk, ask questions and work with the tools the book proposes, adapting them to the age, to the child or the group and to the setting.
No usage license is needed: it is a resource a teacher can take into a classroom or a therapist into a session as supporting material.
Where to start
Start with a story, a question and a while of listening.
You do not need to have the perfect conversation. Opening a different kind of space to talk about what you feel is enough.
Price, shipping and availability are shown by whichever store you choose.