Book Nook: Luna Finds Love Everywhere - A Self-Love Book for Kids

 Meet Luna, a little girl who loves playing outside, helping her family, and learning new things. As Luna goes through her regular daily routine, she realizes how much love there is to appreciate around her and within herself too.

In Luna Finds Love Everywhere: A Self-Love Book for Kids by Dr. Shainna Ali, Luna learns kindness, sharing, and even what to do when things don’t go her way. With simple prompts and activities scattered throughout the story, children will be able to explore the principles of self-love in their own lives through this sweet, illustrated children’s book.

Bestselling author of The Self-Love Workbook and The Self-Love Workbook for Teens, Dr. Shainna Ali is a mental health clinician, educator, and advocate dedicated to highlighting the important role of mental health in fostering happiness, fulfillment, and overall wellness. Her passion for sharing about self-love began when she recognized how influential self-love was in transforming her personal well-being. As she worked with individuals of diverse walks of life, she began to notice a key theme across their journeys: a lack of self-love.

“Self-love begins with the task of being kind and considerate toward yourself. While self-love can be wondrously empowering, it is not always easy and requires intentional practice. Could it be easier if we learned these concepts as children?” said Dr. Shainna Ali. “Each time you read about Luna’s day together, your little one can catch a new concept and deepen their awareness of Luna’s lessons.”

With Luna Finds Love Everywhere, parents can engage with their little ones as they ask questions about Luna’s life and, perhaps, their own as well. Utilize your creativity, and welcome your child’s imagination as they reflect on the book’s prompts and connect the themes into their own lives. Together, you will celebrate the many ways we can love and appreciate each other and ourselves!

I had a chance to interview Dr. Ali to learn more.

-Why did you write this book?

Self-love is often introduced in adulthood, but the truth is, by then folks are often unlearning and relearning what they know about love, relationships, and mental wellbeing. The most common response I received after creating The Self-Love Workbook was "I wish I learned this sooner!" I could wholeheartedly relate, in addition, I had always wanted to write a children's book. As this feedback sank in over time I thought, what if we taught self-love sooner? I'm honored to have had the opportunity to invest in answering this question.

-Why is it so important for people to strengthen their skills in self-love?

Self-love comes with a variety of direct benefits  (e.g., mental health, achievement, happiness). It is a common misconception that the positive outcomes are selfish, and actuality they permeate to others as well (e.g., improved communication, relationship quality). Self-love promotes individual and community wellness as it helps us to invest in ourselves in order to better aid ourselves and those around us as well. When we all learn to love ourselves a little more, everyone wins. 

-Why is it important for kids to gain these skills from a young age?

As a mental health counselor, I have had the privilege of witnessing people integrate concepts of mental wellness into their lives to promote their well-being and overall happiness. What I often see is intelligent, courageous, and dedicated individuals who have to pause, step back, reflect, reassess, and reconcile with what they have learned in the past. I have addressed self-love with each and every client to some degree and more often than not, people reflect on how much easier things may have been to learn these lessons in their earlier years. We shower little ones with the love that they deserve, but what if we also utilized developmentally-appropriate measures to promote their ability to love themselves too? Ideally, the benefits of self-love could be implemented as a cornerstone to wellness early in life, and as the child learns and grows, their self-love practice would deepen. The benefits associated with self-love could be experienced sooner than later. Moreover, with more years to invest in self-love, the benefits may be stronger if learned in early childhood as well.

About the Author

Dr. Shainna Ali is a mental health clinician, educator, and advocate who is dedicated to highlighting the important role of mental health in fostering happiness, fulfillment, and overall wellness. She lives with her partner and her son in central Florida, where she owns Integrated Counseling Solutions, a counseling and consulting practice. In her practice, she uses a strengths-based approach that empowers clients on their journey of self-love. Within the field of mental health, her areas of expertise include exploring identity and culture, fostering emotional intelligence, healing from trauma, and utilizing creative counseling methods. When she isn’t

working, she invests in her self-love by practicing yoga, spending time with her loved ones, teaching dance, or exploring the world.

Dr. Shainna enjoys advocating for the importance of self-love and mental health at workshops and presentations, in the media, and through her Psychology Today–hosted blog, A Modern Mentality. She has been named 30 under 30 by her alma mater, the University of Central Florida, highlighted as an emerging leader by the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, and honored with the Pete Fischer Humanitarian Award by the Florida Counseling Association. You can connect with her at DrShainna.com and on Instagram (@drshainna). 

About the Illustrator

Catarina Oliveira is an illustrator from Portugal, based in Toronto, Canada. She graduated as a graphic designer in 2005 and embraced illustration as a full-time freelancer in 2014, specializing in children’s books since then. You can see her work at catarinaoliveirastudio.com and on Instagram (@catarinaoliveirastudio).