No one teaches us how to live in a body. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know the best way to use our brain? Could it be that we are born with an internal instruction manual? Might it be hidden inside each of us from birth? Within a language that many people overlook?

Welcome to Smartview Stories™ – a children’s self-empowerment book series! Our emotional literacy stories help unlock this instruction manual and its hidden language. Our body and brain are always wanting our well-being. We can learn their language. This language reveals what is going on inside of us and around us. With practice, a mutual trust develops within us. What did not seem at all possible IS possible.

Our setting is Smartview Village. We base it on a lovely Appalachian tourist spot called Smart View Recreation Area along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, VA, USA. Our stories begin in 2018 when a group of people gather at the local library to find a way forward. All around them, they are experiencing cultural norms falling apart. It confuses them. What is clear is that they can help each other. Staying together as a community brings a sense of safety. They can lean on each other. The way they live changes. These families recognize the value of sharing their stories. Each book includes three short stories featuring one family. A fourth story features our Inner Companions. Based on neuroscience concepts, they help illustrate our inner world.

 Smartview Stories Book 1: Awkward Moments Bloom

Published Sept 7, 2021 & Available to order NOW on amazon!

 

 

 

Awkward Moments Bloom, Book 1 features the Poplar Family. Eight-year-old Wendy is struggling at her new school. When we are in an awkward moment, it is often difficult to imagine something positive rising from the experience. Wendy shows us how she has learned to use drawing to help her process her anxiety. Her family supports her by slowing down and creating space to listen. They are not helping her solve anything. They help her trust her own process. Our Inner Companions work together from within Wendy. Lo-and-behold, awkward moments do bloom!

 

 

Our First Book Is Available as a Paperback on Amazon.

As more books come out we will add ebooks, audio versions, workbooks, stickers and plushies. What a journey this has been to get the book this far. Our books are now much more than a typical children’s early chapter book. Like any of us venturing out into a world where we find ourselves checking none of the above when it comes to a label, we found we needed a bit more explanation than just ‘other’. The three stories (A Puddly Kind of Day, The Bus Ride and Glimmers of Bloom) come with their own supportive environment to help them thrive and flourish. Here is the table of contents:

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreward (describes how Smartview Village began and that any one can visit here as this is public land located near Floyd, Virginia, USA)

Smartview Map (where real and imagination meet)

Prologue (the story before the story where the Inner Companions (based on neuroscience) prepare to help their Smartview Village friends)

A Puddly Kind of Day (8 yr old Wendy processes a rough day at school with the help of her family)

The Bus Ride (Whoa, in this story things get a bit worse for Wendy before they get better)

Glimmers of Bloom (Glimpse how the Poplar family slows down dinner time to support understanding ourselves as process)

Focusing and Felt Sense Literacy (a bit about Focusing and a great quote from Mary Gendlin)

Neuroscience (suggests one visit Correlating Neuroscience with Focusing on this website)

Smartview Stories Inner Companions (meet Hummah, Sleuthin and Ashamaya)

A Peek at the Poplar Family (meet Papa Sam, Mama Dawn, Stryder, Wendy and Levi)

Introducing our Smartview Team! (Sandy, Inge, Molly, Nomi, Sarah, & Renee)

 

Smartview Stories Book 1 back cover