"A never-ending and the most difficult game you are ever going to play will be against your own self. It is the only game where neither victory nor defeat will be claimed by others but by your very own thoughts."
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- Artun Bekar
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***We all like to hold and read a book but let's help save a tree or two by purchasing e-book versions. Become environmentally aware. That's one of the main messages of the book as well.
About the Book
Willy, a very rational boy, is forced to grapple with his unpredictable emotions on an adventure with a classmate. On a journey through a nearby forbidden forest, he discovers nine primary emotions that put him in hazardous situations, then help him overcome them. Each emotion appears in the form of a colorful light.
On his way to school, he meets his first emotion, Happi, and soon after Wonder drags him into the forest. He struggles with Panicky after getting scared by something following him, but his pursuer ends up being his classmate Mia, who was trying to make sure he was safe. Because Mia scared him so badly, Willy unleashes his darkest emotion Fury, and he verbally attacks Mia for scaring him, demanding that she leave him alone.
But after she leaves, Shame and Melancholy visit Willy, and he regrets that he was so mean to Mia. He decides to stand up to his emotions and selflessly focuses on finding Mia. Courage appears as Willy tries to make things right, and even though Willy gets physically harmed during his search for Mia, he still manages to find her. She had tripped and fallen over a cliff and is clinging to life by her fingertips curled around a tree root.
Willy tries to rescue her but accidently lets her fall. His assumption of her death hits him hard, and he feels an unbearable pain in his heart. However, Mia hadn’t fallen the whole way down but onto a ledge a little farther down from the surface. Willy uses Fury, Lovely, and Courage to find the strength and brevity to pull her up.
While trying to find a way out of the forest, they come across a mysterious old man playing the violin who lives in a nearby cabin. At first, doubting the intentions of the old man, they pretend they are not lost. Shortly after knowing more about him, they become friends, and the old man takes them to his cabin for some water and to wrap Willy’s wounds. In the meantime, he mentors them on emotions and promises to direct them back to their school.
However, on the way back, the old man takes them on a detour. He takes them to an old factory that leaked poison and destroyed the nearby environment and wildlife. These horrible surroundings cause Willy to meet his most repelling emotion: Disgusty. The old man gives them a vital lesson about the environment by connecting basic human behavior and emotions.
When they finally get back to school, they find a bunch of people looking for them. Willy’s father furiously blames the old man for all the trouble and pushes him to the ground. Lying on the ground with his broken violin, the old man does nothing but show empathy. He then departs back to his cabin. By the end of this coming-of-age story, Willy has changed into someone who cares much more about his emotions and has more control over them.
Purpose
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Why did I write a children's book?
It is all about giving a message through well-composed fictitious stories with magical beings or thought-provoking ideas. I wrote this book for two reasons only.
1) To make kids aware of their emotions. Did you know there are 34.000 distinguished feelings? Yes, really! We only know 9-12. Because nobody really teaches emotions to their kids as a parent or in schools. Indeed, parents lack emotional awareness as well.
2) Environmental awareness. If we want to change the way we treat the environment, the only successful approach is to educate the next generation by illuminating the wrong and right doings of previous generations.
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How I came up with the idea?
Well, one day I was reading an amazing book about emotions and I told myself 'wow, why nobody thought me about such an important subject! Is it only me lacking the education or everybody else is in the same situation?'. The answer was obvious. We all deal with emotions every second of the day. Even if you are the most cold-blooded human-being on earth, you still have emotions. It is just that you hide them or use them to kill your very natural right to feel things that you should be feeling. Parents are busy with their own emotional well-being, in which, they too aren't really emotionally aware or enlightened. Resulting in a lack of emotional education from parents to children. Teaching emotions in schools, well good luck with finding one!
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Emotions are vital in every aspect of life. From professional success to self-awareness to living a life with joy and fulfillment. It is emotional awareness that will make you happy, angry, curious, disgusted, scared, panicked, lovely, hateful, and melancholic. If you can control your emotions, you can easily adjust your emotional stimuli even if the situation demands the opposite. Once you achieve emotional awareness, you will be able to use even the most dangerous emotion like anger for your advantage. You will be able to become happy without any need of an external source, let it be a person, money, materials, success, or anything else in that matter.
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Simultaneously, emotions are at the epicenter of environmental destruction. It is our own emotions that shape our behavior. From consumption patterns to carelessness of our surroundings and our individual actions. It is greed, selfishness, and ignorance that destroy our planet. Therefore, when one becomes aware of his or her emotions, they will naturally become a person of better change.
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I hope you read this book to your kids or let your kids read it. I suggest you read it as well, it will get you even as an adult. It will make you feel emotional throughout the journey.