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 for ages 9-99! 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. We invite you to visit this Recreation Area some time to experience for yourself the land we write about. This is public land. No one lives here right now.

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. Changing their habits is not easy. Changing their beliefs seems even harder. 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. Four colorful families commit that day to create a fun and safe place to improve their skills at navigating life situations of all kinds. One family offers to share the land they live on. Within a year, the other three families build small homes on this land. 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.

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!

Within each Smartview Stories book, our three stories are Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level Grade 3, supplemental pages are Grades 4-6. The characters and events portrayed in our books are fictitious and based on real life experiences. There is an understanding that human beings are living processes.

You might be attracted to this series if: you enjoy reading together as a family; you are a counselor or teacher; you are curious and like to read book series; you would like a new perspective on what it is like to be human; you teach emotional literacy and want to share this with students; you are wanting to improve your relational skills with yourself, others or your environment; you are interested in community living, permaculture or sustainable living concepts; you are interested in learning Focusing skills; you like to geek out on neuroscience; or you have a fondness for Floyd, Virginia, USA.