How I Became Orange

How I Became Orange is a children’s book that is both enjoyable and informative. Designed for young readers aged five to eight, it gently explores common childhood experiences, including blended families, in a way that is easy to understand.

The story also lightly touches on themes of love, marriage, and even loss, offering a tender and reassuring perspective. At its heart, the book focuses on a child from a previous relationship adjusting to life in a blended family and the emotional impact of that transition. Through the guidance of Mama Yellow, young Orange learns to embrace her uniqueness and recognize her worth, ultimately finding her place in her new family.

Pat Murray has always loved children and is a mother of two and a grandmother of three. Her son was a baby when she realized that she could no longer live with his dad. In time when he was two, she met a wonderful man who loved her son as his own and adopted him at a very young age. Not wanting her son to find out that his adopted dad was not his biological dad on his own, she explained it to him in a way that a child could understand; by using colors, which inspired this book. In this day and age, so many children come from blended families and this book deals with this issue as well as touching briefly on death and love and marriage in a gentle and loving way that is adapted to a child’s understanding. How I Became Orange is the result of actual experiences in the author’s life and the life of not only her children but the experience of many families in America today.