✔️ Help kids overcome obstacles
✔️ Great children's bedtime story
✔️ Learn special Hawaiian words
✔️ Perfect for elementary age classrooms
✔️ Make it easier to talk about stress & strong emotions
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One teacher chose to read "Why Is Pono not Pono Today?" to her class and said,“I have a student in my class who gets angry and frustrated very easily. On this particular day I decided to read the story to the class she was upset over a small matter and had her head down with her eyes covered. As I was well into the story she would slowly peek and soon she was upright and very interested into the story. She had forgotten what she was angry about and was smiling and participating in the questions I asked stress free and at peace.”
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When asked about the book, the mother of a 5-year-old shared, “She said Pono was angry because all of the people were mean to him. Kuleana helped him get better. She said she showed him love and respect.
Verbatim: She’s in Kindergarten. Much more articulate than I am...right now.”
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Several weeks after introducing the book to her class, a 5th grade teacher wrote, “One of my students came up today and requested to read the (Pono) book (again) saying, “I can feel my mental stability slipping away and I need to respond versus react.”
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♥ Set in Hawaii, this heartwarming book and its lovable characters offer adults and children helpful ways to discuss and handle stress."Why is Pono not Pono Today?" is a book where kids of all ages easily identify with the normally happy Pono the Bull. Pono snaps after others are mean to him, but his friend Kuleana helps to quickly bring back the best in Pono.
Here, tough situations end well through love, creativity, and working closely together. When we learn how to work through the toughest situations together, STRESS becomes our SUPERPOWER.♥
MORE about this special book: Throughout her trailblazing 34-year military career, the Author - Colonel Deb Lewis - faced significant adversity. She learned thatOver the years, Deb collected and shared her powerful stress tools with others at work and at home with great success, even in combat.
After facing significant adversity in the military, the Author - Colonel Deb Lewis wanted to do more to help others realize that stress skills are essential to successful relationships, at work and at home. Shortly after moving to Hawaii, Deb used cartoons to share a few of her life lessons to teach students at a local college healthier ways to respond to stress. These lessons quickly transformed negative emotions triggered by stress into amazing results.
With a handful more illustrations by Greek artist Georgios Magkakis, the Pono story practically wrote itself. Deb began limited print runs of the book to the delight of others.
Since then, non-profit groups like Rotary International, Lions Club, and In2 InThinking donated hundreds of books to local elementary schools. Deb created an online course around the Pono book for teachers, parents/caregivers and young adults to reveal the deeper meanings behind the story and highlight specific stress tools. During COVID's challenging times, Deb taught the course virtually to all teachers at a local school before every child received their own copy of the donated books.
