*CNN national correspondent and author René Marsh is bringing lessons of resilience, mindfulness, and hope to young readers with her new children’s book, “THE NATURE OF CHANGE: Lessons of Determination, Resilience, and Hope from the Outside World.” Inspired by personal loss and years covering major news events, the story encourages families to slow down and talk about emotions in a gentle, accessible way.
At a time when children are experiencing record levels of anxiety and emotional stress, the book arrives amid a growing movement around mindfulness for kids. Parents are embracing these practices at home, and schools are increasingly incorporating them into classrooms.
Marsh says her path to writing children’s books was unexpected. “I never set out to be a children’s book author. But I know that the catalyst for this was my motherhood and my motherhood journey.”
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Her son Blake loved books from an early age. “I became a mom in 2019 and my son Blake… he would always go for a book over a toy. So I found myself reading to him quite a bit.”
That journey also included profound loss. “Blake was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer when he was just nine months old. And we lost him just one month after his second birthday.”
During Blake’s treatments, books became a source of comfort and inspiration. “While he was in the hospital undergoing many of his cancer treatments, we would travel there with tons of books. And at that time, which was a difficult time, I wanted a book that had this sort of message of having this mental grit that even when things are maybe a bit difficult, you have this mental power to overcome that thing.”
Marsh wrote her first children’s book, “The Miracle Workers: Boy vs. Beast,” during that time. Her latest book continues that mission of helping young readers build emotional strength and resilience.
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“I often think that we teach kids their letters, their numbers, the golden rule,” Marsh says. “But how about starting really early to teach them about hope and resilience, to prepare them for the challenges that we know are going to come, but prepare them before they actually need these skills.”
The inspiration for “THE NATURE OF CHANGE” came during a period of reflection after Blake’s death, when Marsh spent long stretches outside observing the natural world. “After I lost Blake, I spent a lot of time just sitting outside in nature.”
Nature’s quiet moments offered unexpected lessons. “Whether it was the trees that were losing it all in the fall, but there they were standing up tall,” she recalls.
One memory in particular stayed with her. “I so clearly remember winter after losing Blake, there was this big snowstorm and the weight of the snow snapped a limb on a tree in my backyard. And that limb sat there just dangling by a shred of bark for that entire winter and into the spring.”
At first, she believed the branch was gone for good. “I really thought that that limb was dead until I saw it blooming that next spring.”
The moment became a powerful metaphor. “Even in your broken state, you can still grow and you can still blossom.”
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Those observations ultimately shaped the heart of the book. “I want to put into a book for young kids so that they can observe and see within the nature surrounding them, these messages of hope and resilience that nature is certainly telling us if we just slow down and sit still to receive them.”
Written for children ages 4 to 8, the story follows siblings Kit and Amal as they adjust to a new home that initially feels unfamiliar. Through exploring their backyard, they notice how trees, flowers, and animals adapt and renew themselves, revealing lessons about resilience and change.
Marsh hopes the book serves as a starting point for curiosity and reflection. “I hope that this book with its three lessons is just the entryway for kids to see that if they want to be inspired about how to handle tough things, tough changes, unwanted changes in their life, sometimes the best advice could come from just spending some time outdoors.”
Mindfulness, she says, plays an important role in helping children process big emotions. “I think it’s so hard even for us as adults… first of all, as someone who works in news, changing literally by the second, the world is changing literally by the second.”
The pace of modern life can make focus difficult. “Layer onto that this… everything is fast paced with technology and everything just a swipe away. These things make it really difficult to focus or sit still.”
Still, she believes the skill is worth developing early. “One of the best lessons that parents can pass on to kids is the power of focusing your mind when chaos is happening all around you.”
For young children, Marsh uses nature as a way to translate abstract ideas into something tangible. “You try to tell a four-year-old what resilience is all about or hope. It’s very abstract.” But real-world examples can resonate. “If you tell them something like, remember the spider and its web, they automatically remember the spider that has rebuilt, rebuilt, rebuilt over and over and over again.”
The message is simple and empowering. “If the spider can rebuild, so can I.”
Marsh believes curiosity can help children discover these lessons for themselves. “If they go out there knowing and have this curiosity of, what am I going to learn today?, they may be enticed enough to kind of sit still to figure that out.”
Watch our full conversation with René Marsh in the clip below. “THE NATURE OF CHANGE” is available to order HERE.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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