Feelings

by Sarah Jennings (Illustrator)

Are you feeling happy, sad, excited, worried, shy, scared, or grumpy? Do you know why? This book will introduce emotions and show you how to talk about, share, or enjoy what you feel. There are lovely illustrations that will make you smile, frown, or jump for joy.

With fun-to-touch tabbed edges, this is a fun, interactive first book for understanding how we feel--and what to do about it!

Genres: Picture Books, Emotion

14 pages, Board Book

Published May 2, 2017

About the author

Sarah Jennings studied illustration at the University of Wolverhampton. Her style is loose, humorous, and textured, and she loves drawing, painting, and creating textures to use in her artwork. She lives and works in London.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very glad simple feelings books are starting to be published more. Excellent that the feelings didn't seem gendered (like Inside Out, which as a conversational tool made it challenging to assess if a boy was feeling angry or just identified with Anger's gender presentation). All the feelings were explained in basic terms and accompanied by tips on how to capitalize on or get through them. The confusing part was that feelings like sadness/worry, grumpiness, and shyness were accompanied by some tips that would help you not feel those feelings anymore, while feelings like excitement and happiness were all fun things you could do while you were feeling those things.

This is a great addition to books about feelings for the very young, but I'd love to see one done the same way but that doesn't (however indirectly) cast some feelings as positive and some as negative (grumpy did have "huff and puff," though, which was a great example of something that feels good to do when you feel that way). If you're sad, cry! That's healthy. This is still a good one and the tips for getting through uncomfortable emotions will be helpful.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not impressed with this one. The content is a little too out there. "Feeling sad? Have a cake daydream!" I guess? Do we want kids to associate feeling better with eating junk food? Half of the characters on the "grumpy" page are smiling. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

[Conor Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Took this one back to the library after one read. I don’t want to teach my child that if he is sad, he should dance or think about cake. Not sure about the coping mechanisms here.