YOU'RE A CRAB!

A marine-themed look at all kinds of moods.

Some days you may feel as friendly as a dolphin or as silly as a jellyfish (doing a wiggle-jiggle dance), but on those days when things aren’t going right, you may feel downright crabby. And that’s OK! Whitehead delves deep into a tissue-paper–swirled ocean to find all kinds of creatures and the many emotions they may be feeling. In the good-mood passages, like the “frog that goes kissy-kissy-kissy” or the "puffer fish that will hold its breath and make silly faces at you,” the actions beg to be carried out (perhaps to a slightly cranky listener). But the bad ones—“when you feel MAD like an eel that ZAPS at whatever it sees”—are acknowledged as well. Readers are given permission to “go ahead and be a stinky anchovy for a while,” because moods always pass. Even the angry, red, crabby crab (furrowed brows and all) is smiling in the end.

Certainly not new fare, but any opportunity to help children understand emotions is never a misstep.