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MY FEELINGS AND ME

Name: MY FEELINGS AND ME
Author: Holde Kreul
ISBN: 978-1-5107-3533-0

by Holde Kreul ; illustrated by Dagmar Geisler ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2018

An effective and engaging text.

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Emotions and all they entail are fully explored in this German import.

The range of emotions is as wide as the human experience, and adults sometimes forget how overwhelming that can be for little ones just getting a handle on things. This picture books helps start a dialogue between little readers and their caregivers about all the feelings a person can experience. The expressive and dynamic illustrations capture sadness, love, fear, and more in easily accessible ways, placing an angry child against a jagged red backdrop, depicting a frightened child with eyes bugged out and hair standing straight on end. The text addresses the impacts emotions can leave, such as the anxiety that others won’t like you anymore after a tantrum or how great it feels for someone to hold your hand when you’re afraid. The book also goes the extra mile by showing how our interpretations of other people’s emotions can improve our relationships with them. The illustrations and text don’t color any of the emotions as “good” or “bad,” letting little readers examine everything on an even playing field. The book is a bit text-heavy, making this a better fit for older preschoolers and early-elementary-age children; the cast is an all-white one.

An effective and engaging text. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: April 3, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5107-3533-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)