We are imagining a kinder, gentler, more loving world for both people and animals through the teachings of heart-centered living and emotional learning, and every thing that ever is or was began in the imagination first. Let’s get to imagining!

We believe children (and big people) deserve to learn as much about their internal worlds as their external worlds. We also believe that a more emotionally intelligent world equals a more loving world.

Our goal is to build a curated collection of children’s picture books along with guided reading questions and activities that help us learn more about our authentic selves our emotions, and each other. Authenticity is at the heart of self-love, and when we love ourselves, we have more of it to give, and so changing the world really does begin within each of us. 

Children’s literacy and activities are for big people, too!  Seeing the world and each other through the eyes of a child brings back our sense of wonder and imagination. The skills I used to create our BoBo illustrations were nothing more than what I loved to do as a child, and the creative, imagining process was incredibly healing and calming to me.  I wish for all of us to be able to lose our selves in literature and the meditative creative act. 

Our first feature is The Color Monster by Anna Llenas. Stay tuned as we announce more featured books on our Instagram account (@bobodelphina)

**The small income we receive from these book links helps us support an ACLU membership in light of the movement towards banned books.**

"One day, Color Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad, and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed-up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result. "

We chose this book because it starts at the simplest of places. How can we begin to understand or talk about that which we can’t even name? Recognizing and naming emotions is the beginning of processing emotions and understanding our internal worlds. Emotions are information. How often have you asked someone how they are feeling about something difficult, and they respond, “I don’t know.” Emotional language is too often a language we never develop, but books like these are a beautiful place to start.

Here are some guided reading questions ideas: Can you think of a time you had mixed up emotions? Why do you think we can have lots of emotions all at once? Is there a time this happened to you? Can you name all of the emotions you had? What do you think it means if you are mad (fearful, sad, happy, calm)? What makes you feel mad (fearful, sad, happy, calm)? What do you do if you are feeling scared or having difficult emotions? What makes you feel happy? What are the different emotions you felt today? Could your colors be different than the color monster’s colors?

Consider getting the free How We Feel App linked in our emotional learning resource page. It helps identify a range of emotions beyond color monster’s, such as shame, guilt, restless, understood, and many more. It also offers a range of tools and strategies to help us understand and process emotions.

Activity: Adorable color monsters are so easy to create with crayons or paints. I made mine inspired by a watercolor video from YouTube channel, Create & Meditate with Jayme. A simpler activity can be found with Mrs. Swinney’s Art Class on YouTube in which children choose an emotion and the color they associate with that emotion and draw their color monster accordingly. Art activities are a wonderful opportunity for opening dialogue and building authentic connection. Happy color monster making!