Jo Witek

I adored this book! The illustrations are fun and simple, and the cutout heart that continues throughout the whole book through all the different feelings is a great touch. The book goes through all different feelings a kid might experience, describing what it feels like “in my heart.” It’s very descriptive, and I really think it is able to help kids identify what emotion they’re feeling and come to terms with it. I loved on the page where it describes sadness the author makes sure show more to say that she won’t feel like this forever; I thought that was a really important thing to note. The book isn’t very complex, but I think that that is what makes this work better. Emotions are complicated to put into words and to comprehend, and this book does an outstanding job at simplifying it for kids. show less

A young child explains her many emotions using metaphors. For example, when she feels silly, she is magical like a bunny pulled from a magician's hat with an "abracadabra!" but when she feels sad, it's like a dark cloud is over her head while her heart feels as heavy as an elephant.

This is a beautiful book for talking about feelings with young children to help them process those. It is a mixed of so-called positive emotions like happiness and so-called negative emotions like fear. It will show more really help to build emotional intelligence with children, especially if an adult includes additional examples of hope, heartbreak, shyness, etc. to help contextualize even more with real-life moments to tie in with the text.

The illustrations are so fun and fit the book perfectly. There is a large heart cut-out in the cover that opens to various illustrations of different colors on each page, making the heart appeared multi-layered from the outside and then revealing stars, trees, flowers, and many other images on each page. show less

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25073669

Cute story sharing some common fears and showing courage when facing them. I love the little cut outs on the pages that make things look differently, like a mountain with eyes. I feel the book is showing that it is okay to be afraid, everyone is sometimes, but don't be so scared that it stops you from living because usually it won't scare you forever.

What a fun, inviting, and captivating read with textural additions through the heart-cut out pages. This book features a young girl as she walks through the way her heart feels as she experiences different emotions. This book encourages children to guess how the girl is feeling as well as helps them become more intuitive to determine how they are feeling as well. Each page ends with "This is when my heart is..." and during a dialogic reading experience with children - children love sharing show more the emotions they've learned. show less