LOUD & CLEAR: A Story About Big Feelings

He wasn't trying to be loud. He just wanted to ask.Suraj the lion walks into the one patch of shade in a hot, dry village square. He means to ask if he can sit down too. What comes out instead is a ROAR - and by the time it finishes, everybody has gone.Under the old banyan tree, Kuba the capybara tells this two-thousand-year-old tale - lovingly retold from the Panchatantra, India's great treasury of animal fables - to a small porcupine who is roaring and cannot stop. Hidden inside it are three little moves a young child can actually do: TWO HANDS ON THE TUMMY. ONE SLOW BREATH OUT. SAY IT OR SHOW IT.Not a way to be quiet. A way to be heard.For the child whose feelings arrive bigger than their words.A rhyming read-aloud for ages 3 to 6 about anger, frustration, and the shout that comes out instead of the asking. Suraj finds out what a roar is really made of - air, and a big breath he can feel arriving - and that the same breath he shouts with is the one he can speak with. He keeps his roar. He simply learns that it is a poor way of asking.It is also a story about putting things right: naming the harm, saying sorry without expecting to be forgiven straight away, and moving out of the way so somebody else can reach the water.At the back of the book, for grown-ups: A Note for Grown-Ups on why "calm down" so often lands badly, what a slow out-breath can and cannot do, and what to say instead. Conversation starters for after the story. Simple things to try at home when nobody is upset - because the moves need to be boring before you need them.LITTLE FABLES, BIG WORLD Timeless tales, everyday wins. Each book takes one ancient fable and hides one small, doable move inside it. Every book stands completely on its own - start with whichever tangle your child is in today.Ages 3-6 - Full colour throughout - Also by Ujjwal Ganesh: MINE & OURS, a story about sharing.