Does your child ever sit by themselves—alone and seemingly friendless?
In I Used to Be Shy, meet Carla, our self-appointed social committee of one, who makes everyone at summer camp feel welcome. Carla spots a shy new boy who hides from others in his cabin, closing his curtain. Carla follows her heart and gathers a small group of fellow campers to coax him out to play games. With Carla’s encouragement, our new camper builds up his self-confidence, loses his fear, and learns to enjoy his new friends.
The bonus song "Little Brown Pony" includes the lyrics and music notations as does "I Used to Be Shy."
Amy O'Hanlon's excellent Sister Butterfly illustrations show Carla approaching a favorite corner of her garden where she feels safe and happy. Her vigilant brother knows that Carla can create beautiful fantasies as she twirls around and round to music only she can hear, engaged in quiet conversation with the small creatures such as butterflies and her favorite flowers.
Mike Mirabella's children's book entitled Sister Butterfly, is a beautifully illustrated children's book based on a song from his 1998 CD entitled, Special People.
Mike wrote Sister Butterfly song years ago for his daughter, Carla, when she was three years old. The theme of Sister Butterfly centers on Mike's abiding love for his daughter with Down syndrome and for self-discovery and the transformation of the hearts that surround her.
Mike wrote in the song; "My sister is a butterfly who never learned to fly, ...”. Carla still wasn't walking or talking and Mike thought at the time, she would have little chance of accomplishing much of anything in her life. "How wrong I was; her life was a parade of accomplishments!” - Papa Mike.
We are more divided than ever in too many aspects of life, and we too often feel various levels of emptiness while pushing to keep up or protect ourselves from all that is coming at us. Our Life, Our Work, Our Humanness explores our relationships with ourselves and others, and how our stressors and society’s negative influences affect and slowly tear us down. What helps is empowering yourself with more and easier options, so the bad effects you less and can even become a powerful lesson to greater peace. Bad will periodically happen to all of us. However, finding more goodness between the bad, and how we handle most of it, can become easier.
We, and our lives, are built of emotions, relationships, concerns, expectations, harsh realities, and painfully even politics. Vincent is trusting us to open-up about his thirty-four years of front-line public service in both emergency nursing and law enforcement. He then trusts us further to look at our shared difficulties and tragedies as humans, his personal life mistakes, lessons, observations, and what made it all easier. He validates our issues and pains, then quickly moves to solution-based concepts and functional tools to tame our life stressors.
We are human, and that is a messy condition. Sometimes bad is just bad. Yet, seeing and working with the bad from new perspectives can often help it be much less bad. This book is for those who want less conflict and more joy, exploration, and ease.
“The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” was born as a poem and remains so in this newly minted Book Four of Kelly Anne Manuel’s Rainbow’s End Series. In this story the Child is invited on a journey to a town where there is a fantastical train. This train has amazing boxcars for the Child to visit in this book. This book is designed to address all kinds of emotions with the help of some furry friends.
“The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” offers a standing invitation to the Child. Journey to the tail of a rainbow’s end and see what transportation adventures await. The Child will experience a train where unique feelings are represented in each boxcar. The freedom to experience and then process emotions is a springboard for many discussions for Children of any age.
The simple words take on new meaning as the illustrations pair perfectly with their presentation. The illustrations lead the way to an adventure where furry friends represent the feeling expressed in the boxcar. The human likeness of the animals are utilized to capture and keep the Child’s attention. The Child’s imagination will be ignited with possibilities as all manner of images leap off the pages.
Children are naturally able to imagine events that are characteristic of a playful youth. In this story the author encourages the Child to actively engage in flexing their imagination muscles while also receiving information about the natural cycles of emotions. These natural cycles are excellent models for life experiences and that is embraced by the author.
It is in Early Childhood that futures are being constructed. “The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” is a tool in a Caregiver’s toolbox to assist with that healthy formation. The idea that feelings, thoughts, and emotions are alive and well is an important message that the author wants to relay. The Child who reads this book will be able to relate with, connect to, and enjoy the unique boxcars of this fantastical train.
Does your child ever sit by themselves—alone and seemingly friendless? In I Used to Be Shy, meet Carla, our self-appointed social committee of one, who makes everyone at summer camp feel welcome. Carla spots a shy new boy who hides from others in his cabin, closing his curtain. Carla follows her heart and gathers a small group of fellow campers to coax him out to play games. With Carla’s encouragement, our new camper builds up his self-confidence, loses his fear, and learns to enjoy his new friends. The bonus song "Little Brown Pony" includes the lyrics and music notations as does "I Used to Be Shy."
Amy O'Hanlon's excellent Sister Butterfly illustrations show Carla approaching a favorite corner of her garden where she feels safe and happy. Her vigilant brother knows that Carla can create beautiful fantasies as she twirls around and round to music only she can hear, engaged in quiet conversation with the small creatures such as butterflies and her favorite flowers. Mike Mirabella's children's book entitled Sister Butterfly, is a beautifully illustrated children's book based on a song from his 1998 CD entitled, Special People. Mike wrote Sister Butterfly song years ago for his daughter, Carla, when she was three years old. The theme of Sister Butterfly centers on Mike's abiding love for his daughter with Down syndrome and for self-discovery and the transformation of the hearts that surround her. Mike wrote in the song; "My sister is a butterfly who never learned to fly, ...”. Carla still wasn't walking or talking and Mike thought at the time, she would have little chance of accomplishing much of anything in her life. "How wrong I was; her life was a parade of accomplishments!” - Papa Mike.
We are more divided than ever in too many aspects of life, and we too often feel various levels of emptiness while pushing to keep up or protect ourselves from all that is coming at us. Our Life, Our Work, Our Humanness explores our relationships with ourselves and others, and how our stressors and society’s negative influences affect and slowly tear us down. What helps is empowering yourself with more and easier options, so the bad effects you less and can even become a powerful lesson to greater peace. Bad will periodically happen to all of us. However, finding more goodness between the bad, and how we handle most of it, can become easier. We, and our lives, are built of emotions, relationships, concerns, expectations, harsh realities, and painfully even politics. Vincent is trusting us to open-up about his thirty-four years of front-line public service in both emergency nursing and law enforcement. He then trusts us further to look at our shared difficulties and tragedies as humans, his personal life mistakes, lessons, observations, and what made it all easier. He validates our issues and pains, then quickly moves to solution-based concepts and functional tools to tame our life stressors. We are human, and that is a messy condition. Sometimes bad is just bad. Yet, seeing and working with the bad from new perspectives can often help it be much less bad. This book is for those who want less conflict and more joy, exploration, and ease.
“The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” was born as a poem and remains so in this newly minted Book Four of Kelly Anne Manuel’s Rainbow’s End Series. In this story the Child is invited on a journey to a town where there is a fantastical train. This train has amazing boxcars for the Child to visit in this book. This book is designed to address all kinds of emotions with the help of some furry friends. “The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” offers a standing invitation to the Child. Journey to the tail of a rainbow’s end and see what transportation adventures await. The Child will experience a train where unique feelings are represented in each boxcar. The freedom to experience and then process emotions is a springboard for many discussions for Children of any age. The simple words take on new meaning as the illustrations pair perfectly with their presentation. The illustrations lead the way to an adventure where furry friends represent the feeling expressed in the boxcar. The human likeness of the animals are utilized to capture and keep the Child’s attention. The Child’s imagination will be ignited with possibilities as all manner of images leap off the pages. Children are naturally able to imagine events that are characteristic of a playful youth. In this story the author encourages the Child to actively engage in flexing their imagination muscles while also receiving information about the natural cycles of emotions. These natural cycles are excellent models for life experiences and that is embraced by the author. It is in Early Childhood that futures are being constructed. “The Emotion Commotion Locomotion” is a tool in a Caregiver’s toolbox to assist with that healthy formation. The idea that feelings, thoughts, and emotions are alive and well is an important message that the author wants to relay. The Child who reads this book will be able to relate with, connect to, and enjoy the unique boxcars of this fantastical train.
