The Gudetama series keeps getting better and better!

Despite being so short, I found this graphic novel to be quite entertaining. Gudetama is absolutely relatable and in this volume we see how they learn about being mindful, empathic and pretty much a kind being.

There are some really good advices that everybody should follow because, let’s face it, the world is already a terrible place, but we can make it better. 2020 taught us that thinking of others before acting too reckless is a better option than dragging everybody into the mud.

I may sound a bit cheesy but it’s surprising how small acts of kindness can do so much for our community and ultimately, for our mental health.

I would totally recommend this to adults, but is also a great book for a younger audience since it has simple yet important topics to discuss.

<i>I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.</i>

I really enjoyed this book. I feel like it can be useful for people of all ages. I would love to read this to my students to help them start to get a grasp on being mindful about their actions and words. The example about cats vs dogs could be particularly useful with the younger age groups but I think just having that reminder for anyone can bring attention to the way we respond to others. I will recommend this book to my friends and family.

The book explores different aspects of mindfulness through short stories and scenarios. Mindfulness can be just as simple as greeting someone with genuine intent. It can be as simple as being considerate and thinking of others while not neglecting your own wants and needs. The book also explained misconceptions of mindfulness through said short stories and scenarios. It can be easy to believe we are practicing mindfulness when in reality our authentic feelings get lost halfway through. For once, I was surprised how uncomplicated mindfulness was when it was laid bare before me in these panels full of engaging dialogue, vivid colours, and memorable characters.

For those who are interested to learn more mindfulness basics or for those like me who have too high expectations for the idea of mindfulness will find this book a pleasant surprise, and it is absolutely a relaxing book to read in this new year full of unknown possibilities and unpredictable happenings.

Who doesn’t love Gudetama, the lazy egg? For those unfamiliar, Gudetama is a character originating from Japan. His name comes from ぐでぐで (gudegude) which is an onomatopoeic word for feeling lazy and たまご (tamago) which means egg. Putting it together it means a lazy egg. (By the way, his friend in the book, Nisetama is similarly named the “fake egg”.) I’ve been a fan long before I read this book and even have a T-shirt with him on it, so when this book came up on Netgalley, I just had to give it a read!

This book is a guide on mindfulness for lazy people like Gudetama, so it’s formatted into 1-3 page shorts. Some of the topics covered were interesting, like how to be mindful on social media or how to handle problematic relatives, but I found I knew most of the tips. I have taken mindfulness workshops in the past, so tips like taking a walk, journaling or greeting people weren’t new to me. However, the target audience for this is most likely teenagers or younger and they aren’t as likely to have encountered mindfulness techniques. That being the case, I think this would be a fun gift for someone new to mindfulness as it covers a lot of the basics while presenting it in a full colour graphic novel. Not to mention it also introduces readers to Gudetama!

An amazing book to learn about mindfulness! What a great concept! Gudetama is relatable to the core.
I totally recommend this short but meaningful rearing.

So cute! And actually helpful in learning about mindfulness, empathy and care for others. A nice, quick read for adults and children.

I love Gudetama so I was already endeared to this concept, and as a social worker I'm always looking for age-appropriate ways to explain mindfulness and social emotional educational concepts. This book is exactly that. The illustrations are delightful and energetic and the text is compassionate and relevant to many of the dilemmas we all face day to day. I especially enjoyed the timeliness of the part about having a problematic relative who sends you articles you disagree with. I wish the concepts were slightly more cohesively connected throughout the book but I think all the lessons are valuable and necessary.

This is a super cute and very informative graphic novel about mindfulness. It's broken up into short comics featuring different scenarios that we can learn from. It's a great tool for today's stressful climate, whether that be political/personal/etc. The style is cutesy and silly and each story has a little humor but in the end really hits home the message of practicing mindfulness throughout your day.

I was particular fond of Swathi's impact on her neighbor Martin! It shows how continual positivity and mindfulness can transfer onto others.

I'd recommend this to any and all ages!

I'm not sure how seriously I'm supposed to take this book, haha. It's a guide for how to be mindful, with a focus on cultivating an attitude that's non-judgmental, curious, and kind. Or as Gudetama would say, "Don't be a butt." Some of this comic seems nearly serious, and then there's a bit of slapstick-adjacent sort of humor that makes me go "oh right, this is lessons in mindfulness from a lazy talking egg who likes naps." It's a fun, quick read with some good little kernels of life lessons in it.

Who wouldn't want to get mindful advices from a depressed egg?

Gudetama is (already) a classic Sanrio character and this was a short, funny illustrated guide for mindfulness. If you don't like self-help books, this was an easy chunk.
I quite liked the part about social media mindfulness and what to do, if a relative sends you all the time articles and videos you don't want to see. These are parts everyone should read.

Many thanks to netgalley and Oni Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's unfortunate that I can't feel a positive about a book that promotes positivity when I'm anxiety ridden, this felt to me as " stating the obvious" or perhaps it's my fault cuz I don't feel good and this book didn't help,

Gudetama is asking the big questions here. I thought this book was really cute! I was also impressed with the range of scenarios the book showed. The book talked everything from work stress to social media to family members with differing political views. I feel like this would be a really cute way to expose kids to the ideas of being mindful and start discussions about what sort of options we have to cope with stress.

This was so adorable! I've tried to get into the whole mindfulness thing for quite a long time, but no resources ever felt accessible or made it sound too boring. Gudetama, on the other hand, is basically me in cartoon form. This was a short, fun introduction to the concept and practice of mindfulness, and my students could learn a lot form it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Oni Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions expressed are entirely my own. I thought this book was very cute and gave some good advice on mindfulness as well as some tips and tricks on how to better communicate with others and be kinder. I thought the graphics were pretty good as well. The only thing I didn't like about the book is that I thought it would have a little more humor in it since it had the lazy egg character Gudetama. Other than that I thought it was cute with great advice!

I'm a simple person... I see Gudetama, I read Gudetama. Really short introduction into mindfulness and mindfulness techniques with our favorite egg.

This is the first book that I have not liked in a while. It is about empathy and it does show different ways to be able to achieve it. But, I couldn't handle the illustrations. I did not like the main characters outfit. It was a stretchy over the head outfit that didn't fit the world around him.

I received an ARC, however all opinions are my own:

Adorable

Goes through different scenarios in funny cute ways to help people understand and practice mindfulness

Very bright colours and quite fast paced (parts of it move on quickly)

This was a cute little comic with a good message! I recommend it for kids and teenagers because the story was pretty simple, but it was also very colorful. A good basic introduction to mindfulness. It's a quick and fun read.

This is SO CUTE. It's absolutely adorable, and full of good notions about mindfulness that would be really useful for someone who's not very familiar with it. And did I mention that the art is extremely cute ?

2020 was....well, enough words have been spilled on the past year already, but I don't think that too many people will disagree were I to say that I think the majority of us are feeling incredibly stressed, and could all do with a bit more mindfulness. Now, I didn't expect help with this to come from Sanrio's extremely popular lazy egg character. But it turns out he and his friends are a wonderful vehicle for mental and emotional health support. Split into little scenes and stories, the comic is a genuinely good guide to important things like connecting to others, finding common ground during disagreements, making much needed little breaks for oneself when obligations seem overwhelming, being empathetic of others, and more! And even if one doesn't put any of thes lessons to immediate use, it's impossible to not go through nearly fifty pages of Wook-Jin Clark's adorable artwork and not automatically feel at least little bit better.