Review
"When I'm mad, my face gets tight and my body gets hot and I want to punch my sister. My mom says I can't do that though."
~ Connor - age 5
"This book is amazing! It teaches applied principles of meditation and mindfulness all wrapped up ina fun story kids will love. Great book!"
Dr. Clarita Margarido, Physician, Professor, Researcher
"Few children's books really focus on children's emotions and actually help them regulate them ina healthy way without adult intervention. As a high school teacher, I see countless students todaystruggling to cope with their anger and various emotions. Wellness and teaching resilience shouldbe at the top of parents' and teachers' priority lists when it comes to caring for children. I pray thatas children step through the hard circumstances of life, they read this book with a parent (or in aclassroom), and learn that there are many healthy ways to release our anger instead of hurtingothers and ourselves. Kudos on another excellent book Colleen Aynn."
Rachel Nazareth, MDiv, OCT TCDSB Secondary Educator
"Wonderful! Knowing how to deal with your feelings is inspiring and Mad Michael teaches us theimportance of listening to our feelings, especially as children! Great lessons are paired with beautifulillustrations throughout the book, making the reading experience so enjoyable. Highly recommendfor kids, adults & educators alike."
Dr. Monica Eloy, Physician, Consultant
"This book is amazing! It teaches kids to regulate their emotions in ways that that work for them. Itis important to remind kids that we are all different and need help to overcome our own obstacles.Strategies for self-regulation and mindfulness in a fun story for little kids. Well done!"
Vince Chininea, Principal HCDSB
From the Author
Anger was my go-to emotion.
When I couldn't do something... When I didn't get my way... When people did things I didn't like...Pretty much anything, really.
I didn't know how to handle that big feeling inside of me, so I threw up my hands in frustration, yelled,got pissed off, said mean things... I pretty much ran the gamut of bad behaviours when I was angry (asI'm sure all my siblings will attest to).
I had no insight, no idea what to do each time anger showed up on my doorstep, and I certainly neverthought about listening to it.
To think that my anger had shown up for a reason, that it was there to tell me something, neverentered my mind. Who had ever heard of that???
My parents said all the regular things: "Cut it out! Stop it! Be quiet! Let it go!"
The only problem being, I was then left to my own devices to deal with this giant emotion I didn'tknow how to handle.
They, like me, had no idea what to do.
Many years of deep work later, I learned that anger was my way of standing up for myself. My yellingwas my way of protecting myself when I felt disrespected - not really my best technique, but that'swhat I knew how to do.
I spent time learning about boundaries, how to figure out what mine were, and then implement themin my life, how to hold them strongly and with integrity and let go of the 'defend or be crushed'mentality I'd always had.
We tend to get nervous around anger. We either submit to the feeling and let it overtake us, or wepush it far, far away for fear that it just might.
Makes sense - most people do not know how to deal with their anger, so most of us have only seenbad behaviour around it.
Anger was my go to emotion as a kid.
But instead of reacting to the feeling, if we take a second to listen to it, what is our anger telling us?What could our child's anger be saying?
When we look at emotions as messengers from our body, we see a brilliant guidance system, there topoint the way and help us figure out what to do next.
"You mean, there's a reason I'm feeling this way??? I'm not nuts??? It's ok???"
Ahhhh! What a relief! I had spent most of my childhood going back and forth from sickly sweet toraging maniac with nothing in between.
Today I'm here to tell you: No, you're not a jerk! No, your child is not crazy! Yes, there's a reason you'refeeling this way.
Your anger is here to tell you something.Have a listen.
C xo
From the Back Cover
Mad Michael is a bright, colorful, beautifully illustrated book full of rhymes and meaningful messages. Join Mad Michael as he navigates through an emotional day.
Feelings teach us about ourselves, and the world around us, if we take the time to listen. Feelings themselves are neither good nor bad. They just are. It's what we do with them that give them their positive or negative value. Mad Michael helps parents and kids alike deal with and express their feelings in constructive, healthy ways.
About the Author
Colleen has spent most of her life performing as a Musical Theatre Professional. After her daughter was born, she found herself on stage each night drawing tiny little characters that helped her understand and process her feelings. She designed the Feeling Friends series to help little minds deal with big feelings in a positive way for parents and children. Colleen still loves to get up on stage and belt out a tune and these days she's most often joined by her husband, Bruno, and little firecracker, Emilia. Colleen lives in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
