Review: A Child Is a Child by Brigitte Weninger & Eve Tharlet

Two young frogs are waiting for their Mommy and Daddy frogs to come back. Sadly, this never happens. Mr. Hedgehog, Mr. Mole, and Mrs. Blackbird speak of how they cannot be good parents for these children as they are too different. Along comes Mama Mouse with her children who states that she will take care of these children since “A child is a child. All children need a place to live and play, good food to eat and someone who loves them!”. This heartwarming tale does a beautifully simple job speaking of the fears of taking care of children who are not one’s biological children while recognizing the simplicity of all the children need in that moment. The use of animals allows for a more light hearted feel through a difficult subject, and an easier understanding of biological differences. This book is non specific on what happened to the parent frogs, and therefore can be read and interpreted by the child in whatever way is personal to them. This book is perfect for any young child who has experienced some sort of familial abandonment/loss and rehoming.

Resources:

Review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/brigitte-weninger/a-child-is-a-child/

Review & a place to buy this read: https://www.amazon.com/Child-Brigitte-Weninger/dp/0698400062

Review: The Color Monster by Anna Llenas

One day, the Color Monster wakes up very confused and doesn’t know how he feels. The young girl decides to help him separate his emotions, demonstrated with colors, and put them into jars to determine what he feels. Through this strategy they sort through each emotion and what it feels like. For each emotion, the book talks about things that one may enjoy doing or not enjoy doing while feeling this emotion. Doing this is a very easy to understand, relatable way for children to grasp the idea of emotions/feelings. The use of a monster is also a fun way to explain emotions. The artwork is well done and expertly matches the tone of the story with child-like illustrations and color choices. Each emotion also is given its own color which can potentially assist children with emotional literacy. Great for the reader who is learning how to separate and understand emotions and feelings.  

If you like this book you may like:

Happy Right Now by Julie Berry

The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess

Review: The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

The Way I Feel talks about different ways the character feels and the reasons behind these emotions. Characters are illustrated with extremely expressive facial expressions along with a color scheme that matches the feeling and emotion. The author uses real life examples of why someone may feel that way. For example, they talk about how someone is disappointed because their friend can’t come and play anymore. This book also shows different emotions that adults might struggle to explain to their child. The Way I Feel  goes beyond the typical happy and sad amounting to something that many young children can relate to feeling. This book does a great job normalizing a wide range of emotions and helping teach children how to label their feelings. It is okay to not be happy all the time, and this book does a great job of showing that. Great for the reader who is learning about emotional literacy and normalizing an array of feelings.

If you like this book you may like:

The Feelings Book by Todd Parr

How Do You Feel? by Lizzy Rockwell

Review: The Feelings Book by Todd Parr

Each page of this book states “sometimes I feel like” and then follows up with what the person feels like. Followed by a picture of the person doing what they feel like doing. The colors of this book are very vibrant with a unique artistic style. The people are also bright neon colors along with the other objects on the page. This book normalizes feeling in many different ways such as being cranky, just wanting to sit in bed and read, or even standing on your head. This book does a great job of teaching emotional literacy. The story teaches this through showing the facial expression, and then naming the emotion that matches the expression. This also helps to normalize these different emotions for children. Great for the young reader who is learning emotional literacy and understanding that it is normal to have different feelings. This book is also  well suited for younger children since it is a board book.

If you like this book you may like…

How Do You Feel? by Lizzy Rockwell

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

Review: How Do You Feel? By Lizzy Rockwell

How do you feel right now? This book leads the reader through multiple different emotions. On one side of the page it has a picture of a different child’s face making the correct facial expression with the statement “I am” followed by the emotion that they are feeling. On the other side of the page it shows a scenario in which the child may be feeling that specific emotion. This book is a great way to help teach emotional literacy and recognition. It allows for children to start naming the emotions that they are currently feeling. It also allows for children to be able to name the emotion someone else may be feeling based off of their facial expression and consequently act appropriately. This book shows a variety of different children with lots of diversity between children. Great for the young reader who is learning emotional literacy, and how to identify emotions both for themselves and of others.

If you like this book you may like:

The Feelings Book by Todd Parr

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

Review: I’m Worried by Michael Black & Debbie Ridpath Ohi

In this New York Times Bestseller; potato is worried! He’s not worried about just one thing, no, he is worried about anything and everything. He looks to his friends (a flamingo and a young girl) to tell him that nothing bad will happen, but they do not provide him with the support he anticipated. The three of them must work through the worry and understand that being worried is okay. Together, they learn that something good comes out of everything. In the end, Potato and Flamingo make a very silly decision out of fear. This book does a wonderful job of depicting the emotion of worry. It does not shy away from how scary a worry may be and accepts that it is okay to be worried. This is a great book for the reader who may be struggling with anxiety or excessive worrying. The use of potatoes and flamingos, along with the short sentence structure makes this book entertaining and easy to read.

Resources:

An interview where Michael Ian Black talks about why he felt the importance to writing this book: https://www.today.com/video/michael-ian-black-chats-about-his-children-s-book-i-m-worried-60493893889

A read aloud by Michael Ian Black.