I'm Stretched - by Julia Cook (Paperback)

About the Book

I'm Stretched! is a captivating story that speaks to children and adults alike, giving them tactical tools to manage their stress in a healthy and helpful way so they can face the pressures of life and find joy in being who they were meant to be.

Book Synopsis

In I'm Stretched!, Julia Cook, award-winning children's book author and parenting expert, shows children just how overwhelming and powerful stress can be as it piles on the pressure and tries to steal our joy.

I'm stretched! I have so much stuff to do.
Gotta be here...Gotta do that...Where did I put my shoe?

I feel like a rubber band that's stretched and about to break.
I have places to go and things to do and a great big project to make!

Stress is a part of life, and in our fast-paced society, children often feel an unbelievable amount of pressure to balance family and friends, school and homework, and extracurricular activities. All of their responsibilities and expectations can make them feel stretched beyond their limits. I'm Stretched! is a captivating story that speaks to children and adults alike, giving them tactical tools to manage their stress in a healthy and helpful way so they can face the pressures of life and find joy in being who they were meant to be.

Review Quotes

If you aren't overwhelmed by all your own responsibilities and tasks, you surely know someone who is. Children are not always equipped to manage the emotions that arise from the stress and anxiety of taking on so many things. This is a fantastic book for helping children balance these things in a healthy way. As a teacher and mom, I feel like kids' responsibilities pile up (and it seems to get worse as each year passes). Life's demands are never-ending. It's a must-have book if you're a parent, teacher, of counselor. It's not a matter of "if" you'll use it, it's a matter of when.

Kristen Tulisan
School Counselor, Instagram @kirstenskaboodle

I'm Stretched by author Julia Cook does a beautiful job of talking about how activities, studies, social commitments, and family obligations can sneak up on our children and make them feel stretched! What's better than naming it is the short to the point ways that one can work on reducing the stress from feeling stretched! This book is perfect for parents to explore their children's stress level. It's time to start the conversation to counter the stress normalization!!

Stephanie Heitkemper
LPC RPT

Julia Cook's I'm Stretched! is really good, y'all! We know our kids are stressed. This book both normalizes stress and provides ideas for not letting it get to you. I recommend it for 3rd-5th grade. I often feel like books about kids being stressed focus too much on extracurricular activities (which my students were rarely involved in) but this book felt very relatable for lots of different kiddos. I also love that it included family conflict as one of the stressors.

Sara Cottrill-Carlo
School Counselor, Instagram @theresponsivecounselor

About the Author

Julia Cook, M.S. is a national award-winning children's author, counselor, and parenting expert. She has presented in thousands of schools nationally and internationally, regularly speaks at education and counseling conferences, and has published children's books on a wide range of character and social development topics. The goal behind Cook's work is to actively involve young people in fun, memorable stories and teach them to become lifelong problem solvers. Inspiration for her books comes from working with children and carefully listening to counselors, parents, and teachers, in order to stay on top of needs in the classroom and at home. Cook has the innate ability to enter the worldview of a child through storybooks, giving children both the "what to say" and the "how to say it."

After studying illustration at Saint Lukas in Ghent, Stephanie Dehennin became a freelance Art Director in the magazine world, but never stopped drawing and painting. The love for illustration was too strong to ignore, so she decided to dedicate the rest of her career to drawing and painting for children.