Calm Your Roar Like a Dinosaur: How to Relax Muscle by Muscle

by Colleen A. Patterson MA, Colleen A. Patterson, John Joseph (illustrator)

Feeling frustrated, frenzied, or full of roar? Calm yourself like a dinosaur!

This book teaches little kids progressive-muscle-relaxation, a mindful self-guiding mediation technique proven to calm and ground the whole mind and body. With its catchy mantra and playful rhyme, Calm Your Roar presents a super fun and playful easy-to-learn skill that benefits dinos of all ages, and guaranteed to turn dinosaurs into relaxosaurs. All dinosaurs have a “roar” inside themselves, from everyday feelings of frustration, anger or stress. Dinos big and small will learn that is OK and progressive-muscle relaxation is a great way to release that roar!

Genres: Picture Books, Dinosaurs, Childrens, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

Published February 4, 2025

Reviews

[Nadina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are cute, the text is super simple. It was a cute book.

[Kassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is adorable! I love that it takes kids through a whole body scan meditation but it makes it fun, memorable and age appropriate. This is such a important skills to start young. What a great tool. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by the publisher, American Psychological Association, via NetGalley.

[Reading Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have to give this book a million stars. The powerful message hidden in this adorable little story is what every family needs to share. Using playful rhythm in a fun story and the most adorable dinosaurs you have ever seen the authors create the perfect little story. This story teaches our little ones and us, a self-guiding meditation technique to help us calm our mind & body when we wanna "roar like a dinosaur". It shows kids that everyone has those big feelings of anger, stress and being frustrated. The authors also give us more ways to help us learn to calm and relax. These illustrations are so fun and adorable, my kids loved following along to learn how to relax with their new dino friends.
I love the methods and the positivity of this story, I have a son who is on the autism spectrum and this was perfect for helping him understand feelings and with a new way to learn a new way to calm. A new family favorite. Perfect for an early childhood. Highly Recommend to all families.

[Jessie (Saffity) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have a kid who has big feelings and needs some help with how to handle them, especially if they like dinosaurs, this book is a huge resource. I read this to my daughter (5) and as we were going through the motions my son (2) came over and started doing them too. They both love dinosaurs so pretending their body parts were stretching like the dinosaurs' really got them involved. The illustrations were fantastic, both kids enjoyed turning the new page to see which ones were showing up. They both loved the one breathing page where the bird was getting flipped around by the dino's breath. The information at the beginning of the book for parents was great, giving additional tools to help work with the kids while we went through everything. It's a very cute book with an easy to follow pattern to help kids calm their 'roar' and get back on even footing. We read this ebook through NetGalley.

[Jenny B (RhinoAGoodBook) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This children's book is a great, interactive way for kids to calm down and relax as they focus on one part of their bodies at a time while tensing and relaxing muscles. The illustrations of dinosaurs are absolutely adorable. My daughters (4 and 1) were excited to try each thing the dinosaurs were doing. The writing is easy for kids to follow along with and keeps their attention. They also loved looking for the little bird on each page. At the end is a note about self-regulation techniques and some more tips for parents, which was interesting and helpful. I would recommend this to older toddlers and up through elementary age! The technique itself can even help the grownups reading along with their kids! I received this as an eARC from NetGalley for my opinions.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the American Psychological Association with Magination Press for an advanced read copy of this book.

Calm Your Roar Like a Dinosaur by Miles and Patterson tackles whole body relaxation in a fun and motivating way for young learners. The illustrations of the book are bright and engaging. This book does a great job of presenting a mindfulness technique in a way that is appropriate for small children. This book would be a wonderful resource for a guidance counselor, social worker, or special education teacher. I am looking forward to using it in my elementary life skills support classroom as a part of our social skills group.

[Marah · Rating 5 out of 5]

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by the publisher, American Psychological Association, via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own****

Deep breathing and grounding isn't foreign to my children but I'm always looking for new ways to make it fun. I read this to my four year old today and I LOVED how interactive it was. She was so engaged and followed every instruction of the book. Afterward she was ready for bed. This is the perfect book for Naptime, bedtime, or even when your child or classroom is in the red and needs help regulating.

[Jordan Tu'ulauulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Magination Press for a digital ARC in exchange for mine, and my son's, review.

This was a cute dinosaur book that doubles as a self-regulation tool! The rhyming is cute and flows nicely when read aloud, and my 5 year old was able to copy the movements after I prompted him to. The illustrations are adorable, bright, and eye-catching! The only downside is that my son was not in love with this book and not interested in re-reading it when I offered, hence the 4 stars.

[Ande Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calm Your Roar Like a Dinosaur is a wonderful book with dinosaur protagonists that take the reader through different exercises to calm down. I really liked this one! It is a great resource in teaching calming techniques to the kiddos, and the dino illustrations are fabulous!

Thanks to NetGalley, Brenda Miles, and the American Psychological Association for the chance to read and review! My opinion is my own.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute and beneficial book! With simple prose and the repetition of "calm your roar," Calm Your Roar Like a Dinosaur instructs kids through a basic form of progressive muscle relaxation. The illustrations are adorable, and the dinosaurs are varied. My kids really enjoyed reading this story together, and I liked the extra notes at the back for parents.

Thank you to American Psychological Association for gifting my family with an ARC to review! All opinions are our own.

[Cyndee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am over the moon thrilled with this book!!!! I think every family needs one in their home - what a fun way to help littles learn what to do with all those feelings. What if we'd all had this while growing up...we'd all be a lot healthier, mentally and physically. Checking it out to take home tonight for my husband...and me ♥

[Binxie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rhyming text and colorful illustrations guide dinosaurs through relaxation techniques everyone needs now and then. It will make for an interesting storytime read. It may be that the adults attending can model some of the relaxation techniques and carry the ideas into their day-to-day interactions with kids and, well, everyone.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 sentence per page. Interactive. Gets audience to participate in relaxing different parts of their body and turning into a relaxosaur at the end. Kind of wish the book was larger in size. Illustrations are colorful and cute.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

NEW FAVORITE KIDS BOOK BY FAR!

As a parent who runs anxious, I'm hyperaware of my tension being unintentionally passed through to my son (18 months old). One thing I've found that calms us BOTH down, is "belly breathing". Imagine my excitement when Brenda Miles provided me with even more calming techniques to try with my kiddo! The added value of this book, for me, is that it can serve as both a quick reference and a book to read in full. As I'm writing this review, I had the epiphany that it triples as learning material for our body parts (wings aka arms, neck, claws aka fingers and toes, etc).

Even though the copy I read was by courtesy, I plan to purchase this book for our house the second it's released! Assuming my son loves it as much as I do (there's not a doubt in my mind) I'll likely make this my go-to book to gift at baby showers! Especially for my fellow 90's babies having babies; The illustrations give The Land Before Time.

(I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by the publisher, American Psychological Association, via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dinosaur relaxation technique book. Great opportunity for winding down a storytime on dinosaurs, using all the interactivity!

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes: relaxing, dinosaurs, stories that rhyme, movement
Ages: toddler-1st grade
Pub year: 2025

[Bookishrealm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't necessarily by favorite, BUT I do think the combination of simple text and dinosaurs will work well for parents/caregivers teaching younger children emotional regulation.

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a helpful book for teaching kids 5-9 progressive muscle relaxation to deal with overpowering emotions. The colorful dinosaur illustrations are adorable and will grab the attention of readers young and old. Highly recommended!