OAKLAND — Surrounded by desks, notebooks, pens and blackboards, a circle of seventh-grade students breathed deeply to the sound of long vibrating bell.

Eyes closed. Backs still and straight. With palms in the upright gesture of a shark’s fin, the diverse students — all former graduates of Mason Musumeci’s fifth-grade class at Reach Academy in East Oakland — let their hands glide the distance from their foreheads to their hearts, as if transported to another realm.

The students were simply practicing what they’ve now become young masters of, the art and science of bringing mindfulness in the classroom. In fact, the young gurus are spreading the word about this growing practice, a form of meditation that is increasingly being taught in classrooms across the country. They’ve even co-authored a new book for kids with Laurie Grossman, an Oakland social worker, and artist Angelina Alvarez. Both women are mindfulness instructors who worked with the young authors two years ago and helped bring their ideas to life.

Jessica Avellano, 12, now a seventh-grader at Claremont Middle School, said it was a thrill to see the book published. She said mindfulness has helped her. Instead of panicking before a test or a big speech, she finds a refuge deep within herself.

“It helps me remember everyone is human, and makes mistakes,” she said.

With roots in the Buddhist meditation, the practice of mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and surroundings, experts say. It’s based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s practice of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which has been adopted for schools, prisons and hospitals.

Studies have shown that the meditative breathing exercises also help to teach kids to focus their attention and improve their impulse control, resolve conflicts among their peers and family, relieve stress and gain confidence, Grossman said.

“And it’s not just a fad, because breathing is biology,” she said.

Their book, “Master of Mindfulness: How to Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress,” just came out last month. “It really came from their experiences and practice of mindfulness,” said Musumeci, their former teacher and in whose class they first learned about the exercises. “And part of the reason why I’m excited about this is because this is truly their work.”

The idea to write the book first took shape in Musumeci’s class, when one of his students, impressed by its powers, suggested mindfulness should have its own superhero.

From there, the idea took flight. Grossman suggested that the superhero should have a book, to which the more than two dozen kids enthusiastically agreed. And over the course of months, the class met several times a week to brainstorm ways to talk about mindfulness and how it can help them: from calming them before a big test or speech to dealing with the sadness of being bullied and forestalling fights with classmates, friends or family members. Those ideas became the book.

Alvarez, an Antioch artist, fell in love with the project and wanted to help out. She worked with the students for several months, breaking them into groups interested in writing, drawing or being photographed in the book, so that every student played a part in the book and all of their names are in it.

A number of kids also read the scripts of the mindfulness exercises for audio tracks that can be found online to accompany the book.

“There are very few kids’ books that feature kids of color, but they wrote it and it’s a topic that is so current,” Grossman said. “And the world needs mindfulness so badly. It’s an awareness of the present day.”

At a Friday night book launch party held in their honor, kids buzzed with excitement over the publication of their book. They led a round of mindfulness exercises, narrated in both English and Spanish. And a big surprise was unveiled that night: a scholarship fund, dubbed the Bright Futures Fund for Masters of Mindfulness, was set up in their honor. Most royalties from the book’s sale will help the student co-authors, many of whom are kids of color and on economic assistance, go to college, trade school, train in some other craft or start a business someday.

Tamarion Batson, 12, who is now in seventh grade at Elmhurst Community Prep, said that mindfulness exercises have even helped his mom with her carpal tunnel syndrome.

“It helped a lot, and I couldn’t believe it, that I went to sleep with no pain,” said his mother Danitra Batson.

But most of all Tamarion said he was excited that the book might even reach kids as far away as Africa, where Grossman took it on a recent trip.

“I hope that everyone will get to see the book,” Tamarion said, “and that it will be shared all around the world.”

Contact Joyce Tsai at 925-945-4764. Follow her at Twitter.com/joycetsainews.