Review of Angry Octopus Color Me Happy Color Me Calm by Lori Lite

 

Angry Octopus Color Me Happy, Color Me Calm is a light-hearted, self-help, mindful coloring book designed to guide 4-11-year-olds and their parents, teachers, or counselors through simple everyday techniques that can be used to control anger, reduce stress, and increase happiness. This interactive coloring book is filled with simple strategies to self-soothe, manage anger, and improve emotional intelligence. Children are empowered to manage their BIG feelings while coloring 76 illustrations. Each mindful page motivates children to express themselves peacefully without having a tantrum, meltdown, or outburst.

Angry Octopus is a kid-friendly character that children around the world relate to. He made his television debut on ABC’s Shark Tank.

Goodreads * Paperback

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**My thoughts*

I have been a fan of Lori Lite's books for a long time now. I am absolutely delighted that there is a coloring book to go with Angry Octopus. It leads the reader and artist through affirmations and words of hope to help you cope with the stress in your life. And while it does feature the characters from one of Lori's children's books, you don't absolutely have to read the book to be able to follow the words in this coloring book. And I can guarantee that adults would benefit from these words and the process of coloring at least as much as children would. I know for me, I'm not a huge fan of those meticulous fine-point coloring books that are often marketed to adults. I want larger areas to color because I find that to be more relaxing. I'm all over this book! I'd love to see even more!

I received a requested review copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the author:

Lori Lite is a mom, parenting stress expert and author. Lori has created an award-winning line of books, CDs, and lesson plans designed to help children, teens, and parents decrease stress, lower anxiety, and control anger. Her sought-after practical tips provide parents with real-time solutions. Lori shares her own experiences as a stressed-out mom in an honest and accessible way. Her personal parenting challenges with getting her children to sleep were the catalyst for her stories. She has the unique ability of communicating how to integrate stress management techniques and self-esteem building activities into your family’s life. You can read more about Lori on her website at https://stressfreekids.com or on her Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lite

Review of Angry Octopus (A Relaxation Story) by Lori Lite

  

The Angry Octopus story featured on ABC's Shark Tank, teaches children relaxation techniques for controlling anger and negative emotions. It helps kids to calm down and lower stress and anxiety levels by focusing awareness on various muscle groups to create a complete resting of the mind and body. Muscular relaxation can lower anxiety levels and be used to decrease pain.

These effective stress and anger management techniques are woven into this award-winning story. Your child will learn the technique as they read the story.

Children relate to the angry octopus in this beautifully illustrated book as the sea child shows him how to manage his anger, remain calm and see things more clearly. This engaging story quiets the mind and relaxes the body so your child can let go of anger and fall asleep peacefully.

Angry Octopus is one of four stories featured on the Indigo Ocean Dreams audiobook and is available in several formats. The Spanish version of El Pulpo Enojado (ISBN: 9781937985011) and Angry Octopus Color Me Happy, Color Me Calm (ISBN: 9781937985332) compliment this story.

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**My thoughts**

Once upon a time when I was teaching preschool and kindergarten, Lori Lite's books were a staple in my classroom. My students were in love with the stories and illustrations and found benefits in the lessons contained within. Lori Lite was a forerunner in the social-emotional children's book realm, well before they became so popular. I recently revisited Angry Octopus and still love it. 

I like the description of the octopus getting angry and squirting out dark ink so that he can't see what is going on around him. That's a great metaphor for what it's like when you get angry. 

And then there is the beautiful sea child who teaches the octopus how to lie back and find relaxation to let go of the anger. It's a technique that therapists teach us to use, where you tense up a part of your body and then breathe it loose again, one little part at a time from your head to your toes. You can act this out while reading the story - even as an adult - and feel the anger and tension start to slip away. I know I try to use these techniques for myself. And the kids in my class would often act this book out and practiced when they were feeling angry or out of sorts. 

It is also a great book to have at home. The whole series is fantastic.

I received a requested review copy from the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the author:

Lori Lite is a mom, parenting stress expert and an author. Lori has created an award-winning line of books, CDs, and lesson plans designed to help children, teens, and parents decrease stress, lower anxiety, and control anger. Her sought-after practical tips provide parents with real-time solutions. Lori shares her own experiences as a stressed-out mom in an honest and accessible way. Her personal parenting challenges with getting her children to sleep were the catalyst for her stories. She has the unique ability of communicating how to integrate stress management techniques and self-esteem building activities into your family’s life. You can read more about Lori on her website at https://stressfreekids.com or on her Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lite

Angry Octopus Color Me Happy, Color Me Calm Coloring Book by Lori Lite

 

Angry Octopus Color Me Happy, Color Me Calm is a light-hearted, self-help, mindful coloring book designed to guide 4-11-year-olds and their parents, teachers, or counselors through simple everyday techniques that can be used to control anger, reduce stress, and increase happiness. This interactive coloring book is filled with simple strategies to self-soothe, manage anger, and improve emotional intelligence. Children are empowered to manage their BIG feelings while coloring 76 illustrations. Each mindful page motivates children to express themselves peacefully without having a tantrum, meltdown, or outburst.

Angry Octopus is a kid-friendly character that children around the world relate to. He made his television debut on ABC’s Shark Tank.

Goodreads * Paperback

(affiliate link included)

About the author:

Lori Lite is a mom, parenting stress expert and author. Lori has created an award-winning line of books, CDs, and lesson plans designed to help children, teens, and parents decrease stress, lower anxiety, and control anger. Her sought-after practical tips provide parents with real-time solutions. Lori shares her own experiences as a stressed-out mom in an honest and accessible way. Her personal parenting challenges with getting her children to sleep were the catalyst for her stories. She has the unique ability of communicating how to integrate stress management techniques and self-esteem building activities into your family’s life. You can read more about Lori on her website at https://stressfreekids.com or on her Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lite

I was compensated for sharing this post. I only share those books that I feel will be of interest to my readers.

Bubble Riding: A Relaxation Story

Bubble Riding: A Relaxation Story is a part of the Stress Free Kids series by Lori Lite. `This is a series dedicated to teaching stress management techniques to children. And parents can also learn a lot from them.

In this book, the child is asked to imagine being either the sea child or the turtle who are the main characters.

The sea child finds her way to a water spout on the bottom of the ocean floor that provides lots of bubbles. When a big enough one appear, the sea child embraces it, and slowly makes her way inside it. It provides her with a warm sense of security. An observing sea turtle quickly follows suit.

As the bubble rises through the ocean waters, the sea child notices a beautiful rainbow above her. She closes her eyes to reflect on the power of each individual color.

The color red provides the sea child with a sense of health and energy. Orange gives her happiness. Yellow allows her to feel an inner glow, as the green color fills her with love. Blue provides relaxation, while purple allows for peace and clarity. As these senses of strength and peace come together through the rainbow, they blend together to create a pure white light that provides balance and calm.

Visualizing color has long been a practice that provides empowerment and peace to those who do it. This book is the first one for children that I have come across that seems to explain it in a way that young children can understand. It can easily be used in the classroom, as well as within the family home, to encourage stress management and to build unity.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

Purchase Bubble Riding: A Relaxation Story, Designed to Help Children Increase Creativity While Lowering Stress and Anxiety Levels. (Indigo Ocean Dreams)

Sea Otter Cove: A Relaxation Story

Sea Otter Cove: A Relaxation Story by Lori Lite is a part of her Stress Free Kids series, designed to help children develop stress management techniques. The book begins by asking the child to pretend that she is either the sea otter or the sea child featured in the story. She is to imagine that she is perched on a special rock, just like the book characters. Then, just like the sea child, she is to imagine how far down that sea rocks goes, all the way to the center of the Earth. This helps ground her, giving her a sense of security and connection to her world.

Lori then describes the sights and sounds experienced by the two characters, evoking images in the child's mind as she listens to the story. Imagining the sounds of ocean waves can be enhanced by playing an ocean wave CD in the background. The sounds of waves crashing serve to further relax the child.

At one point, a sea gull is flying overhead and drops a feather. The sea child fills her belly with air and blows to keep the feather up in the air. She teaches the sea otter how to place his hands on his belly, to feel it rising and falling as he breathes in and out through his nose. "Breathe in...2...3...4....breathe out...2...3...4." This belly breathing is a great relaxation technique for children to use.

As the sea child continues to teach the sea otter, more and more sea otters join them on top of the rock, until it is full of creatures breathing in unison. This part of the story evokes images of a whole group of children breathing together, to create a collective calm in their classroom. It also evokes images of families relaxing together, creating a deeper sense of unity.

The illustrations by Max Stasuyk are both gentle and vivid, at the same time. You can sense the calm and relaxation as the sea child and sea otter breathe in and out in unison. The bright colors also make the pictures appealing to young children.

This book can be beneficial to both the classroom and to the family unit. In these days of living at a frenetic pace, it is important to take some time out to care for self. Deep breathing relaxation techniques can help in this process.

Information provided by the publisher also states that techniques, such as deep breathing, can help children with many issues, including ADHD, OCD, anxiety, stress, anger, depression, panic disorders, hyperactivity, and more.

Purchase Sea Otter Cove: A Relaxation Story introducing deep breathing to decrease stress and anger while promoting peaceful sleep (Indigo Ocean Dreams)


A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.