Where'd My Giggle Go?
- Details
- Category: Authors
- Published: Tuesday, 14 September 2021 06:00
We all get sad sometimes! Help your children manage negative emotions in a delightful way so they can transform from grumpy to laugh-out-loud happy. Replay Care's Wednesday Bookmark interview with Max Lucado.
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(You can read the transcript of the interview and watch the video below)
Book Description: A whimsical picture book from New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado, Where'd My Giggle Go? helps your kids process their emotions in a fun, healthy way so they can transform from grumpy to laugh-out-loud happy.
"I felt kind of cranky. I felt kind of sad. I can't tell you why, but I even felt mad." For every child who sometimes feels out of sorts and doesn't know why, Where'd My Giggle Go? helps normalize and dissipate negative emotions in a delightful way.
A perfect read-aloud, Where'd My Giggle Go? provides:
- A natural way for you to talk with your kids about how we all get sad sometimes
- A reminder that we can help others find their happiness
With colorful illustrations from Sarah Jennings, this book is:
- Great for ages 4-8
- Brilliant for classroom discussions about processing feelings and emotions and a resource to help parents discuss being sad, grumpy, anxious, or unhappy
Where'd My Giggle Go? follows a boy who looks all over--from the circus to the bakery to his own pocket--for his giggle. After all, "No-giggle's no fun. No fun, no sirree. No-giggle is not the best way to be." Then he realizes that bringing happiness to others is the best way to find it himself. As he offers smiles and hugs, helps his mom wash the dishes, plays with a friend, and gives the dog a good tickle, he feels something deep, deep within start to wiggle. And before you know it, the boy starts to giggle!
Lucado's charming but powerful message reminds each of us that getting over the grumpies is just a giggle away.
About the Author:
Max Lucado is a pastor, speaker, and best-selling author who, in his own words, “writes books for people who don’t read books.” He serves the people of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, and his message is for the hurting, the guilty, the lonely, and the discouraged: God loves you; let him.
As a writer, Max is known for combining poetic storytelling and homespun humor with the heart of a pastor. All of his trade books began as sermon series at Oak Hills Church, and his sermons all begin with Max asking himself this question: “What can I say on Sunday that will still matter on Monday?” He’s been dubbed “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today, and “The Best Preacher in America” by Reader’s Digest.
Connect:
Care Baldwin: Max Lucado is a pastor and bestselling author who has years of experience helping kids make sense of their emotions. Where'd My Giggle Go is designed to help parents have conversations with their 4-8 year old's about their feelings and how to find joy again. Hello Max, welcome to the Wednesday Bookmark!
Max Lucado: Boy, it's a treat. It really is. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for letting me be on the program. Thank you.
Care: So, first of all, the idea for this book, I believe started with a conversation with your grandkids. What did you talk about?
Max: I've got the best grandkids. My goodness. They're just a treat. Rose is now six and Max, you know, named after, you know who, is now three. I think at the time Rose must have been four, you know, cuz the book came out last spring. She was just grumpy and you know, we all get grumpy and cranky and have a hard time getting our joy. And so I came up with the phrase that day. I said, "Honey, I think you've lost your giggle." And that made her giggle. And we started pretending that we couldn't find a giggle. So we were to look all over the house trying to find a giggle. So that's where the book was born is out of the very thing that any caretaker does, we wanna help our kids learn to manage their emotions.
(01:42): And I think we do this by validating the emotion, you know, not just by saying "don't be unhappy" or "don't be worried" or "don't trouble, don't be anxious." Yeah, see, it's one thing to say that, but helping kids understand, "Okay, this is an emotion, it's not your identity, it's just the way you feel today, and let's see if we can learn to find that giggle." You know, even some grown ups don't understand that just cuz they have an emotion, they don't have to live with that emotion. So helping the kids work through the emotions of life is just one of the tools of this, of this new book.
Care: I love that you, you've kind of tied in a favorite pastime of kids. It's almost like there's a 'hide-and-seek' element to it as well, which kids love. But you mentioned this already. Um, cuz I know you've counseled with so many people, like why do we get sad sometimes help us to understand where that comes from and, and, and there's some reasons behind it.
Max (02:32): Well, sadness, you know, the Psalmist, you know, would bemoan in scripture, you know, oh, why are you downcast? Oh my soul, you downcast. So even he was saying, why, why do I get like this? How do we get this way? And, and you know, the list of reasons is everything from, hormonal, to environmental, to situational, to, you know, some serious psychological or mental challenges that we're having, spiritually, we can feel off base or disconnected, but here's the big deal. I think, I think that we could see emotions, kinda like weather patterns. They just, they come in. We wake up and there's one over us. It could be a great one. It could be a hard one, but the big deal is help helping our children see that just because they feel a certain way. They don't have to live the day or spend the day with those feelings in the book where my Google goal, you know, the little kid goes looking for the giggle and he finds out that his giggle comes back when he begins helping other people giggle it. It's the principle that Jesus gave us. It's more blessed to give than receive. And so as, as the little boy helps other people find their giggle, then he finds his own what an important principle that many of us grownups forget. And that is true. Happiness comes when we give happiness away.
Care: I love that. And, you know, I think we're all gonna need to do that more and more now after the year and a half that we've had, we're gonna need more help finding our joy again.
Max: You're right. You know, I don't wanto to get too heavy here, but, our young people do are just battered and bruised. According to one study, 91% of young people born after 1996 are dealing with serious episodes of anxiety and depression. So it's a hard time to be a young person and, and let's do all we can to, to provide some help.
Care: Before we talk about some practical ways that parents can help their kids navigate their emotions, I do wanna talk a little bit about those unique kids that have big feelings, I think maybe you've referred to them that way before. How do you communicate with them? We're all designed differently. And I, I think I probably may have been one of those kids. How would you, how do you address that as a parent? And what would you say just as someone who's experienced and work with so many people,
Max (05:08): That's a great way to put it "big feelings", because the truth is some of us feel things more intensely than others. We all land at different spots on the Enneagram, you know, we all have different personality traits and some people feel things more profoundly and more deeply. I think two or three things come to mind: Let's help our children understand that emotions are not sins. This is especially true with anxiety. We hear sermons about anxiety, don't worry, be anxious for nothing. And sometimes we leave the impression that if you feel these emotions, you're sinning. Every emotion can lead to a sinful behavior, but emotions are simply emotions. So when we feel something deeply, that's okay; let's, let's learn to process 'em. And then I think just a second big idea for people who have deep emotions: Let's help this child understand that what can bring us down cannot keep us down. The fact that you feel something deeply is the fact that you're a very deep soul. You have something special. The fact that you feel things profoundly means that there's a depth to you, and that's a valuable trait. That's a valuable trait. And so learn to accept that about yourself and understand that and work through these emotions. They're not gonna hold you down forever.
Care: Just as we wrap up, but I know we don't want, as you mentioned before, kids to sort of fall victim to their emotions in a way that sometimes adults can. So what are some practical ways that parents can help their kids navigate their emotions?
Max (06:54): I think two or three things come to mind: Number one, we gotta really help our kids get the good thoughts in their heads. One of the challenges unique to this generation is just over-exposure to social media. It is just a bizarre thing. I was at a lunch just two or three days ago with a family that had four small kids. And by the end of the meal, each of the children were on their phone. And I know it's a help to the parents. I get that. I get that, but I'm concerned as I see so many children turning to the phone for entertainment or for pastime, because the social media is all about comparison. And in the comparison game, we always lose. Either we feel inferior or superior, neither one of those two emotions are helpful. And so we've really gotta manage the input that our kids are having. And the folks I know, you know, it's easy for me as a 66 year old, my kids are grown. You're saying, Lucado, you don't know how, how tough that is. I probably don't. However, that very tool that can be destructive can also be instructive. If your children are gonna be filling their mind with thoughts through social media, you be the one who patrols it. You be the one, mom and dad, who says "okay, these shows, you can look, these shows you can watch". That's huge. That's just necessary. We have to help our kids understand that during these formative stages of their brain, you can't think the thoughts that everybody's telling you to think.
Care: And I know just to touch on it briefly too, there's a lot of highlighted words in the book that help kids understand how to kind of give a language or a word to how they're feeling. And I think that's another really great tool.
Max: I'm so glad you mentioned that care because that's a, that's the advantage of books like this and that as we give our kids a point of reference, you know, even to this day, I can go to my granddaughter and I can say, Rosie, "where's your giggle go"? And she'll giggle. She'll she just thinks that's the funniest phrase. We have a common vernacular now. And so children's books are good. One of the blessings of a children's book, it gives you, it, it just gives you a vernacular. It gives you that repeated phrase, that tool that you can use with which to connect with your child.
Care: That's so good. Well, it is one of those books that kids are gonna wanna read over and over and over again. And the more that they do, the more that they'll predict and respond to just the journey that the main care going on. Once again, it's called where'd my giggle go by pastor and bestselling author. Max Lucado. Max, really appreciate your time. Thank you!
Max: Thank you, Care. You do a super job, full of energy, and great questions.
Care: Well it's great chatting with you. Appreciate it.
