A lovely, poetic look at feelings that goes beyond the typical happy/sad. Choosing some complex feelings and unique animals means the book can be used as a springboard for kids to talk about their feelings in new ways. I could see this being the start of a great project where each child picks an emotion to illustrate for a class or group book. It is also ideal for a sensitive child to learn new words to express feelings. It was a lot to process at one time, though, so might not be the best "fun read aloud" choice. It's going to need some introspection! ( )

This Is a thoughtful picture book with fairly attractive artwork and short sections of poetic text attributing an emotion to an animal. Some are fairly upbeat ("The Butterfly of Joy lands on the cosmos flower, for just a moment spreading her wings.") Some are pretty dark, honestly. ("The Goldfish of Boredom bumps against his bowl starved for something different doesn't quite know what")
All of these free verse snippets are very anthropomorphic, and worse, many are perpetuating old stereotypes. I wish that children's stories would stop characterizing wolves in dark or scary terms (the Wolf of Fear). The Maggot of Disgust was an intriguing choice to include, and the Turtle of Loneliness was a bit of a heartbreak.
I appreciate the intent of the author, but be aware that this may be a complex book to read for some families. ( )

This is a book about feelings. We enjoyed the pictures and the construction of the book. The metaphors about animals and feelings were not our style. It is a book that would be most useful for teachers and therapists. As a home library book, you could read a page or two at a time maybe. The metaphors were sometimes good, sometimes too complicated for children. I think they would go over their heads unless time was taken to explain them. However, for children who need help expressing and understanding feelings, I can see this being a very helpful book. Also, I'm not sure I like the idea of some of the more negative feelings being associated with animals I like. Maybe that's just me. ( )

This book is about the many emotions humans experience. The author, Patricia Austin has written these short poems using animals and insects as they experience these emotions. It is an excellent book to read and reflect on emotions we have as humans. Elephant of Sadness Butterfly of Joy will make students think about their emotions in a new direction thanks to these poems. Thank you, Library Thing for selecting our library to receive this book to add to our K-12 library through the Early Reviewers Book Selection program.

This is a beautiful book of poetry. Each page is a short poem about an animal of feeling. Elephant of Sadness. Goldfish of Boredom. Cat of Contentment. Each poem is gently illustrated to support the text. This would be a great book to read before bed, or to use as a mentor text studying poetry, or to talk about feelings and social emotional learning.

*** I got this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, but all opinions are my own. *** ( )