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by Karen White Porter (Author)
Do you ever feel lonely? It feels bad to be excluded. Everyone wants to be included, but you need to learn how to play and share with others. We feel lonely when we feel removed from a group. Ed feels lonely when the others do not want to play with his ball. Ada wants to play box ball with the others. Ben finds a ball that fits in the box and so does Cal and Deb. Book twentythree of the 'I Feel? When?' book series shows how many monster friends play together in a way to help everyone feel included. Ed copes with his loneliness by curling up in a ball on the hill. The other friends finally see something is wrong and invites him to play with the group. They work out their feelings and finally play box ball together. This colorful book opens the door to discussing loneliness in a nonthreatening way for younger audiences. It also uses nonviolent communication as described on the YouTube channel 'Dealing with Feelings' by psychotherapist Dr. Jim Porter and Karen Porter in their weekly show 'Feeling Fridays'. The husband-and-wife team invites you to explore feelings with your young reader as they begin to read. See how these furry friends learn appropriate ways to express feelings and solve problems by coping with their feelings through listening to one another and observing each other without judgement, expressing feelings and needs, and coping with feelings in compassionate helpful ways. Many of the words in the book are basic sight words. Sight words are a subset of high-frequency words that do not sound the way they are spelled and are therefore not easily learned. Identifying these words and then finding them in the story will build literacy. Using words that students are familiar with helps them build fluency and flow as they read. Teaching students to memorize these words, by sight, helps them read faster with confidence. As you read through this series the young reader can develop mastery of all the sight words. Each story also contains a feeling word to build emotional literacy.
