Show Your Glow! Shimmer Shows Us How! By Shelby Herman A 2016 Personal Favorite...

Glowworms have been around for a long time, but there's a new girl in town! Her name is Shimmer and she lives in a cave right next to a great big tree. The tree is so big that she had never looked up to see that it was a "me tree." But you know what, Shimmer probably wouldn't have understood what was there until she actually participated in discovering these special words! That's why, when an older Glow Worm saw her one day, he decided to talk to her. You see, she didn't play with the others; she didn't dance...her glow was not very bright! In fact, it was barely showing a glow at all!


"Shimmer, my dear, you seem to have a low glow. Maybe you should leave the cave to go explore and see if you can find your glow."

Shimmer thought about it for a long time. I wonder why my glow is low? Maybe I CAN find the answer out there, she thought, as she went to sleep that day.

The next night, she woke up ready to go on her journey. She said goodbye to the other glowworms and left the cave. Shimmer had hope.

Shimmer: The Glowworm

  Finds Her Glow

By Shelby Herman

Illustrated by Natalie Kelly

This book doesn't come right out and say that Shimmer was sad, or discouraged, or even a little depressed. But the wise old Glowworm and her friends saw that something was wrong, although they weren't sure what. Perhaps you have a little child in your family that sometimes exhibits some type of aura that puts parents on the alert... If so, I highly recommend you check this book out!

Ollie flew back to the branch and said, "Look,"
Shimmer, your glow is starting to show."
!!!

I found it interesting that, upon leaving home, it was Shimmer who began to take the initiative to speak to those she met along her way. Perhaps she saw that they looked sad and wanted to help (just like Shimmer's friends wanted to help her?) The first new friend she met was an owl and he was surprised when she asked his name! "Hoo, Hoo." It was an owl. She said, "I'm Shimmer. What your name?" Owl said, "Nobody ever asked me that, because I'm always alone. My name is Ollie."

Since they were both alone, Shimmer climbed right up on the limb to talk to him. She promptly asked why he wasn't flying around. Shimmer was surprised that he seemed to feel the same way as she did. But she was even more surprised, after telling him that she was looking for her glow, that he announced, "I think maybe the answer is inside of you."

Now Shimmer didn't stop to ponder what he'd said right then, she immediately turned around and paid Ollie a compliment, "You are very wise, Ollie. You have a lot of wisdom."

Suddenly Ollie acknowledged what Shimmer had told him and got excited that he could share his ideas with others. After thanking her and telling her he was so happy, he flew off on some new adventure, I am sure...

After meeting Ollie, Shimmer went on her way and became friends with Cray, Kiki and Scout. And guess what, each of them had something that had discouraged their activities. Cray, for instance, was made fun of by the bullies in school when he changed into some really beautiful colors!

Cray said, "I match the things I touch. I used to like to be all the colors, even sometimes two colors at once, but one day I was pink and blue and I got laughed at."
"You were pink and blue?" asked Shimmer, "Can I see that?"
"Sure," said Cray, and he hopped up onto a red flower and a purple flower, and now he was red and purple."
"Wow, that's amazing!" said Shimmer.
Cray was beaming with pride..."

~~~

And you know what happened? After she had talked with each of her new friends, they all pointed out to her that...She Was Glowing! What had happened was that she had made others feel good about themselves and when she did, she began to glow! All of the friends had learned how to be proud of what they could do and show their glow! Can you guess what Shimmer had learned about showing her Glow?! Shimmer had started to glow so much, she was glowing in different colors!

This is one of my favorite children's illustrated books.  While the words are there to learn at the end of the book, Shimmer's actions in helping others is a far better way to learn those words than by just explaining the definition to your children.

Why not have your child build a Me Tree so they can begin to know what kinds of things they can tell about themselves...I am musical! I love friends!

Help your children and their friends get excited about learning and doing things that they can share with others. It really isn't hard if you turn it around and try to help somebody else feel good!

The book is 54 full-color pages that are bright and eye-catching. The characters are large enough to allow the children to learn and identify each one and be able to talk about each of the words to be used to identify each on the Me Tree. This is exceptionally well done thanks not only to the brilliant story but the attractive illustrations for which a kudos is sent to Natalie Kelly. By the way, all of the pictures were obtained from author's sites across the Internet and from what I can tell there's must more coming, especially related to music! Highly recommended for your children's library!


GABixlerReviews

I have been asked how I came to create all of this and where did I get my inspiration, so I decided one day to write my "story." I didn't want it to sound like a sad country song (I love country music) or some self-serving saga about my lessons, so I thought I would write it as a fun story about a girl....and then I thought, maybe I should make it rhyme. So -HERE'S MY STORY
Shelby Herman created the ME TREEs to empower and inspire children to discover their unique qualities about themselves and to find their own treasure. The ME TREE's are being used in classrooms to teach mindfulness and awareness. She expanded on that vision telling the story of "Shimmer the Glowworm" soon after, she wrote the theme song "Show Your Glow," to provide a message that touches the heart.