THE GRAND HOTEL OF FEELINGS

A host of personified emotions stroll into a hotel while the manager strives to understand them all.

The Grand Hotel of Feelings is a large, opulent building with sparkly chandeliers and expansive windows. As the manager explains, there is always space available; every feeling is welcome, “no matter how difficult.” Sadness, for example, a greenish-blue creature with many tentacles, often floods the bathroom with tears. The manager has learned to listen very carefully. If not, “I won’t hear what Sadness is telling me and then he will stay for a very long time.” Gratitude, on the other hand, is a solid, dependable, white being who likes to sit quietly next to others, though it can be easy to take her for granted. Emotions can be tricky to understand; readers will appreciate that the author offers a tangible way to grasp the enormity. Here, the feelings are transient, and the manager learns new coping mechanisms from each visit. The only human at the hotel, the manager has pale skin and long white hair, while the emotions are an eclectic variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The final page may raise eyebrows, with depictions of other hotels, some of which feel rooted in cultural stereotype (such as a vaguely Middle Eastern–looking palace, with a brown-skinned character riding a flying carpet). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Quirky and expressive social-emotional learning.