Do you ever think about hands? We use them all the time, and life would be so hard without them. As I thought about hands and looked at my own handprint crafts, I thought about how we use them for sensory and let's face it there are so many great handprint crafts! I am sharing a large round-up of handprint crafts and hand sensations. Think about kids playing with play dough, slime and finger painting. Or the fact that we hold their hands all the time. Our hands are truly our sense of touch and something special to us. Today I get to share a beautiful book about hands. It is What Makes Hands Beautiful? by J.F. Bierlein and illustrated by Houda Zahid. There is a giveaway and the craft round-up at the end of the post.
About the Book:
What Makes Hands Beautiful? Written by J. F. Bierlein and Illustrated by Houda ZahidAges: 4-6 | 29 Pages | Publisher: Independently Published (2024) | ISBN: 979-8336568356
Publisher’s Book Summary: In this charming story, a young girl learns from her mother that it is not appearance that makes hands beautiful, but what they do, and the love that motivates the hands. The book is a celebration of the values of kindness, service, and respect for others and their work.
Purchase Links:
About the Author
The author, J.F. Bierlein, is a writer, business coach, consultant, and part-time consultant. His website is jfbierlein.com. Bierlein has written several other books, including Parallel Myths, which has sold more than 100,000 copies, been selected as a textbook, and been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean.
During his long and totally fun life, he has worked on Capitol Hill, taught as an Adjunct Professor for 10 years, and worked as a consultant in a wonderful firm for the past 20 years. He loves to travel, especially to Istanbul, and keeps in touch with a wide variety of friends throughout the world.
Mr. Bierlein is also the Chair of the Monte Azul Foundation, which supports sustainable agriculture and youth employment and training in rural Puerto Rico.
For more information, check out jfbierlein.com.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jf-bierlein
About the Illustrator:
Houda Zahid is a Strategic Life Coach, Udemy/MOCC course creator, Arabic, French, and English language coach, and graphic designer based in Casablanca, Morocco. She is the mother of Raniya and Isla, both primary school children, who helped inspire this book. She loves traveling and has been to many countries around the world. She also has a big passion for swimming.
From Me:
This book is rather simple but beautiful. It is perfect for the age group. A young girl begins to wonder about hands as she is washing them. Her mother tells her how beautiful hands are and how they help others. With our hands we sew, build houses, fix cars, grow and cook food, heal others, and comfort others among many things. The theme of the book is about how we use hands to help others and create our lives. Beautiful hands share love. It reminds me of so many wonderful things. I remember my sister telling how much she loved feeling Hazel's little hand in her hand when Hazel was about three. My sister lived in North Carolina at the time, so she didn't see her that often, but she missed feeling the little hand in hers. Her son is much older than Hazel. It reminds me of when Hazel was little and would take my hand before entering a parking lot and tell me she was the spoon, and I was the dish, and we should run away together. Think about it--we hold hands to show love and care. Whether it is between a guardian and child or between friends or lovers, holding hands means love and care.
Another thing the love of beautiful hands reminds me of is the common expression of care--the heart made with our hands. I know when Hazel or I am sick it is what we did instead of hugging. The picture above is Hazel and two friends creating a hand heart together. It is such a wonderful new trend, and this book reminds me of it. This book is just beautiful with its message and gets the reader thinking of how hands help us. This book will become a family favorite. I can hear the conversations about community helpers in the classroom as well. Think about how often we ask our kids to wash their hands these days. What Makes Hands Beautiful? will help start conversations about how we can create with our hands as well as help others. It is the perfect book for both story times and at home. It has multicultural characters and is a feel-good book. It reminds me of Like Rain Water by Deedee Cummings. It will bring warm thoughts and great discussions as well as pass on the feeling of love.
Handprint Craft Round-Up
The obvious thing to go with this book is hand crafts! Here is a round-up of handprint crafts and a few other hand crafts and activities. Enjoy!
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1. Handprint Strawberries
2. Kids Craft Room shares a Handprint & Pasta Pineapple Craft
3. Tina's Dynamic Homeschool+ shares P Is for Pineapple
4. The Best Ideas for Kids shares fun Handprint Butterfly Cards
6. Darcy and Brian share a colorful Handprint Sun Paper Plate Craft
7. Homeschool Preschool shares an Apple Handprint Craft
9. Simple Everyday Mom shares a cute Handprint Polar Bear
10. My Bored Toddler shares a fun Handprint Ladybug
11. Taming Little Monsters shares a Handprint Chicken
12. Homeschool Preschool shares a fun Handprint Flower Craft perfect for gifting
13. Handprint Mother's Day Gift (one of my most popular posts)
14. Praying Hands
15. Finger Knitting
1. Mother's Day Handprint Card
2. Buggy and Buddy shares a fun Galaxy Handprint Card
3. Red Ted Art shares these adorable Monster Hug Cards
4. Rock Your Homeschool shares several Handprint Valentine Cards with Template
5. Simple Everyday Mom shares a fun Flower Handprint Card
6. Darcy and Brian share a fun Handprint Sunflower Craft
8. Buggy and Buddy shares the inspiration for the previous Kissing Hand Pop-Up
1. Modern Art Inspired Handprint Project
2. Kids Craft Room shares Handprint Acorn with Lacing Activity
3. Taming Little Monsters shares this beautiful Handprint Dot Art (perfect to go with this book)
5. Buggy and Buddy share beautiful Handprints on Cork Board Art
7. Kids Craft Room shares a beautiful Handprint Daffodil
8. Handprint for Valentine's Day
11. Hand Painting
13. Living Life & Learning shares a STEM lesson craft Skeleton Handprint
14. Handprint Dove
15. Jinxy Kids shares a fun Handprint Lorax Craft with Microwavable Salt Dough
1. Autumn Handprint Wreath
3. Jinxy Kids shares a Paper Plate Handprint Wreath
4. Simple Everyday Mom shares a fun Handprint Bat
6. Fun-A-Day shares a beautiful Valentine Handprint Tree
8. Kids Craft Room shares Paper Bag Pumpkin with Handprint Leaves
9. Mama Smiles shares a fun Handprint Turkey
10. Handprint Turkey
11. Mama Smiles shares the amazing Family Handprint Christmas Tree
12. Rock Your Homeschool shares a creative Handprint Spider Craft
13. Fun-A-Day shares this adorable Handprint Reindeer Plate
14. Kids Craft Room shares this perfect Baby Jesus Handprint Ornament
15. In the Playroom shares a Handprint Angel with a Template
16. Red Ted Art shares adorable Handprint & Popsicle Stick Angels
17. Not Pictured: Mama Smiles shares the cherished Baby Handprint Ornament
18. Not Pictured: The Colors of Us Handprint Art
Giveaway
Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a signed set of JF Bierlein’s books, including What Makes Hands Beautiful?, Parallel Myths, Kindness Matters, and the upcoming River Stones.
What Makes Hands Beautiful: Book Giveaway
