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Many of you have enjoyed Casey Hersch’s series of posts about Pawso, the cat who inspired her children’s book I Am Pawso: A Cat Teaches Kids Ways To Turn Around Difficult Situations.
Casey, a licensed clinical social worker who uses holistic and resilience-based models to help children and families cope with trauma, stress and illness, discovered that raising and observing foster kittens gave her an opportunity to revisit some of her own childhood trauma in a healing way. By parenting the kittens in ways she had not experienced as a child, she raised resilient, confident and capable cats. The experience planted the seed to write a children’s book featuring Pawso.
I’m no expert on anything related to children, but this book strikes me as absolutely brilliant.
In the book, Pawso takes the reader through various activities children might experience in the course of a day. Pawso has trouble managing his feelings when he encounters situations such as being bullied or called by a wrong name, but learns that he can reframe a negative by changing his thoughts, using a technique he calls “shake and turn.”
“The key to building resilience is understanding how to use our strengths and inner powers to calm down, expanding our view, and learning how to feel in control even when the rest of the world is not,” explains Casey.
The book is aimed at children ages 3 to 11, but the book’s message is valuable for adults as well. The utterly delightful illustrations present an important and complex topic in an easily accessible and lighthearted way that makes learning, and more importantly, retaining the message, fun.
Even if you don’t have any children or grandchildren in your life who could benefit from this book and the powerful message it carries, I recommend treating yourself to a copy anyway. I guarantee it will give you some food for thought and bring a lot of smiles.
I Am Pawso is available from Amazon.
About Casey Hersch
Casey Hersch, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker, author, animal rescuer, and Latin ballroom dancer. She uses holistic and resilience-based models to help children and families cope with trauma, stress, and illness. Casey lives in California with her husband, Scott (I Am Pawso illustrator), and her cats Pawso and Samba.
For more information visit:
*Purrs of Wisdom is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This means that if you decide to purchase through any of our links, we get a small commission. We only spread the word about products and services we’ve either used or would use ourselves. I received this book from the author. Receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review. All reviews on Purrs of Wisdom will always reflect my honest opinion, or, as the case may be, Allegra’s honest opinion.
that book sounds incredible! My 5 year old granddaughter is acting up in school quite a bit and that book sounds like it would be quite helpful!
Hello! Thanks for your interest in my book. I do think it is purrfect for your 5 year old granddaughter! If you have any questions or want to learn more about it, please let me know. I have a companion guidebook coming out after the holidays (free) which parents, teachers, and therapists can use to dive deeper into the Pawso Practics and Shake and Turn Tools. I really want kids and their adults to benefit.
A wonderful book for children.
Thank you Theresa!
I’ve enjoyed reading about Pawso and his family on this blog and I am putting the “I Am Pawso” book on my holiday gift wish list.
I would like to recommend Casey’s website to your readers, Ingrid, along with the I Am Pawso website. Both are great reads!
Lynnette, thank you for the support. It means a lot! I really want Pawso’s Practices to make a difference in the world! Enjoy the book!
Sounds like a great tool for kids. I probably could have used it as I was growing up.
Janine, I agree. Many of the messages in I Am Pawso, I also wish I had when I was growing up. It’s not too late to still make a difference and honestly, I am applying the Pawso Practices everyday in my own life, as an adult. We all need the same reminders and skills!