Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions

by Abrams Appleseed

“White backgrounds provide maximum contrast for the photos, which readily telegraph each emotion, and an embedded mirror lets children see their own happy, silly, and other emotive expressions.” ―Publishers Weekly   Find the happy baby! Find the sad baby! Find the angry baby! Find the silly baby! Explore expressions in this interactive, photographic board book from the creators of Baby Loves and Baby Up, Baby Down.  Making A First Book of Emotions is a bold, beautiful board book that introduces five essential happy, sad, angry, surprised, and silly. Each expression is paired with a large image of a baby’s face. Children are asked to mimic the face, then pick it out from a group of other babies. At the end, readers are invited to make all the faces introduced in a unique and exciting way—with a mirror right on the last page!   Little ones will learn as they play and will delight in mimicking expressions—especially the “surprised” face. Yes, it’s different from the scared face!   “Full-color head shots depict a diverse group of toddlers exhibiting a range of facial expressions that indicate a variety of emotions, from happy to sad and surprised to amused.” —School Library Journal   Collect the whole LovesBaby Up, Baby Down   Also The Baby Loves Books Collection, featuring Baby Loves; Baby Up, Baby Down; and Making Faces.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Emotion, Storytime, Juvenile, Mental Health, Parenting

14 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 30, 2017

Reviews

[Mary Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Concept is good, but I don't think the photographs show enough range. I am also frustrated that the two white children are showing positive emotions (happy, silly) and the three children of color are showing more negative emotions (sad, angry, surprised). An unacceptable oversight.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this book, but I read it to see if I wanted to buy it for my baby and I'm not about to buy my Asian child a book where every positive emotion is associated with white kids and every negative emotion is associated with poc.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: Look at the happy baby. Can you make a happy face? Find the happy baby! Look at the sad baby. Can you make a sad face? Find the sad baby!

Premise/plot: Making Faces is a concept board book. The concept being taught is emotions. The emotions explored are 'happy,' 'sad,' 'angry,' 'surprised,' and 'silly.' The book follows a definite pattern. The last spread reviews the five emotions and features a mirror so your little one can make faces of his/her own!

My thoughts: Babies like books with mirrors. The book features photographs--well of faces--of babies. The text is super-simple and follows a pattern. One could definitely enjoy reading this one with a little one in the lap!!! Reading aloud is SO essential to a baby's development.

[Jannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable design though Im not quite in agreement in the faces matching the emotions. Also why does my 2 year old get so early upset when we go to the negative emotions.. hrmm.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you, like me, are a parent who sometimes struggles to do the part of reading aloud where you talk to your kid about the pictures, this book is especially awesome because conversation is built into the text. Clear photos of just faces, no background, help babies zero in on facial expressions.

Also, all the babies in this book have really excellent hair.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable. A fun way to introduce young children to the concept of emotion and nonverbal communication.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another drool-covered favorite from the Kutsunis house. Highly recommended as a baby gift for any expecting parents you may know!

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with grandma via FaceTime for nighttime storytime

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions is an adorable board book that teaches little ones how to recognize and understand different facial expressions.

The use of real faces as the illustrations is a brilliant idea. It helps children identify how a person's face changes through emotions.

The fun mirror at the end of the book allows babies to see how the emotional expressions they just learned from the story look on their own faces. They will also be entertained making faces of their own.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A board book introduction to emotions featuring photos of ethnically diverse children displaying an emotion. Text follows the pattern of introducing an emotion, encourages the listener to mime the emotion, and then challenges them to select the child displaying a given emotion from a spread of children displaying a range of different emotions.

A mirror is included in the back for young listeners to look at themselves making faces.

Highly recommended for babies/toddlers.

[Sierra P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Age 0-2

I gave this book a poor rating because, it seemed overly complicated for infants to interact with. This book depicts emotions and facial expressions. This is also a matching book for infants, but I believe giving multiple facial expressions to choose from overcomplicates the purpose of the text. I did like the mirror included at the back of the book, this would help children engage with the story as well as practice facial expressions.

[Jena Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my least favorite of this books. Even though my two year old loves, like really, really, loves these books, this one left me disappointed! They could have used a few more emotions and a few more obvious facial expressions. My girl got confused, because some of the babies didn't really look surprised or silly... Ended up being a good book about matching.

[Melissa McAlvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

the girls both really liked this simple board book. Norah had fun making the different faces and Hazel had fun pointing to the babies; she loves books with photos of actual babies. and I always appreciate multicultural books as well.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really put off by the fact that the more positive emotion babies were white while the more negative emotion babies were POC exclusively. That is not the sort of message I want in my baby story time.

[Uli Von Hornbol · Rating 5 out of 5]

My child loves books with real photos - she does not relate that well to books with drawings. This is one of the few such books out there. That it also helps her understand her emotions, and that there are few stereotypes in the book just adds to my excitement over this gem.

[Briony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a great book to read with older toddlers. They could po

[Anastasia Tuckness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love!!

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this book is a little problematic, but personally I love it.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby actually showed interest in looking at the pages of this one. Winner!!

[Sue Mosher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such cute babies in this book! Introduces the idea of figuring out different emotions from expressions.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the photos of "real" life babies used in this book. This book fills a void in the "emotions" genre for children.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

while they do feature diverse faces, all the babies of color are the ones that are angry/sad, whereas the white babies are silly/happy

[Cara Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very smart emotion board book that interacts with the reader, asking to match babies and look in a mirror to see one's one emotions.

[Heather Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

lily fall reading 2018, board book, faces, emotions

[Pennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter liked looking at all the different facial expressions.

[Monica]

great for recognizing and identifying feelings for young children

[Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book!

[Jacklyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really helped my young nephew learn to identify and mirror emotions.

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute and effective at what it does.

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last years summer reading program free book from the library and perfect for our emotional learning. One of the first books my toddler can “read” himself.