Books That Heal Kids: feelings

Showing posts with label feelings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feelings. Show all posts

Book Review: Words Are Like Faces

Author: Edith Baer
Illustrator: Kyra Teis

From the Book Jacket: Edith Baer's playful, yet thought provoking rhyming poem, coupled with Kyra Teis' colorful illustrations, captures the significance of words in everyday life. Although the couplets are easy to memorize and lucid, the underlying meaning conveys the role of language in building a human community, which connects, informs and nurtures through dialogue.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Absolutely love this wonderful and simple book about the power of our words. Favorite page in this book reminds us to be careful with our words, for they can't be unsaid. Lets be mindful of our language and encourage each other to express ourselves in a healthy way. 

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Book Review: Breathing Makes it Better


Author: Christopher Willard
Illustrator: Wendy O'Leary

From the Book Jacket: We all have hard days sometimes - filled with icky feelings like anger, fear, loneliness, or a bad case of the blues. Breathe along with this interactive story to discover the one easy thing you're already doing that has the power to turn those days around. Peace is closer than you think!

Why It's On My Bookshelf: If you are trying to teach your kids when to "stop and take a breath" this is a great resource. It is a line that is repeated over and over in the book. It also teaches kids WHEN they should take a breath. I've been using this in a small group setting and it has been so helpful to help kids to take pause and breathe when emotions feel like they are too much to handle. Highly recommend!

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Book Review: Everyone...

Author/Illustrator: Christopher Silas Neal

From the Book Jacket: Happy one moment and sad the next - everyone has feelings. Everyone, cries, everyone laughs, everyone sings, Everyone. Author Christopher Silas Neal invites young readers to explore how we feel what we feel, and how everything -- and everyone -- feels it, too. From the animals in the woods to the neighbors in their homes nearby, everyone has feelings. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I thought this was a wonderful book to not just talk about feelings but to recognize everyone around us shares them too. It's a great community and empathy builder also.  If you need a new one to teach feelings, the zones of regulation, or help develop empathy - this is an awesome resource. 

We also are working on helping kids to be responsible for their emotions and take good care of them. So when students are having really big feelings about something, we can remind them to use the tools we have taught them to manage their behavior. I appreciate how this book helped us with that important social skill training. 

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Book Review: The Happy Book - Understanding and Regulating Feelings




Author/Illustrator: Andy Rash

From the Book Jacket: When you live in The Happy Book, the world is full of daisies and sunshine and friendship cakes...until your best friend eats the whole cake and doesn't save you one bite. Moving from happiness to sadness and everything in between, Camper and Clam have a hard time finding their way back to happy. But maybe happy isn't the goal - being a good friend is about supporting each other and feeling all the feels together. 

At once funny and thoughtful, The Happy Book supports social emotional learning. It's a book to keep young readers company no matter how they're feeling!

Why It's On My Bookshelf: As a school counselor I have used a lot of different books to teach students how to regulate their feelings. The Happy Book is a great addition to my social emotional teaching curriculum. I specifically used this book to help kids learn more about the Zones of Regulation and how we can have many feelings throughout the day. Everything is going great between Camper and Clam until one of them gets their feelings hurt. From there they experience all sorts of different emotions. This was helpful to my students as they could connect to the conflict between the two characters - which was a misunderstanding. But more importantly how you can bounce right out of being happy into sadness or anger. At one point Camper feels scared that Clam no longer wants to be his friend. This is a social situation many kids can relate to. This book was a great fit for teaching the zones and also such a validating read for children to know it's okay to open up about your emotions -- eventually closure will come. 

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Book Review: The Rabbit Listened


From the Book Jacket: When something sad happens to Taylor, all the animals think they know how to help. One by one they come, but nothing they say makes Taylor feel better. Until the rabbit arrives...and the rabbit knows just what to do. The Rabbit Listened is about healing heartaches big and small, and taking the time to listen. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is a comforting book for learning how to cope when you are feeling upset and sad. Sometimes it just takes someone listening and validating your feelings. This story is a light for children and might serve as an encouraging message that it's okay to express your feelings. 

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Book Review: When the Anger Ogre Visits

Author: Andree Salom
Illustrator: Ivette Salom

From the Book Jacket: Use this playful, read-along story to teach that anger as a natural and manageable part of life.

"The Anger Ogre visits everybody's lives, just remember to be patient whenever it arrives."

When the Anger Ogre Visits gives children symbolic and concrete guidance about how to deal with anger as a natural part of their inner lives. Rather than squelching anger or pushing it away, the book invites children to sit with and observe anger, removing its overwhelming aspects. This playfully illustrated story, written in memorable rhyme, centers on discovering and using internal resources and portrays anger as manageable.


Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is a nice one to help kids work on some concrete skills around calming their bodies down when they are angry. I really struggle with helping kids learn to breathe when the Anger Ogre shows up. I like the language used in the book: breathe slow and very deeply; relax your tongue; relax your toes; relax your belly; relax your nose; relax your ears so you can hear the sound of your breath.....Lots of great directions like this. The book shows the Ogre changing form as different techniques are used to tame it. This is another great one to add to my shelf to help children. 

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Book Review: Some Bunny To Talk To - A Story About Going to Therapy


Authors: Cheryl Sterling, Paola Conte, and Larissa Labay
Illustrator: Tiphanie Beeke
Interest Level: Ages 4-8

From the Book Jacket: Little Bunny has a problem and he doesn't know how to solve it. Sometimes things in a little bunny's life can feel so hard. So Big Bunny has an idea. 

"I have an idea. I'd like you to talk to Some Bunny. Some Bunny is a therapist."

Some Bunny To Talk To presents therapy in a way that is simple, direct, and easy for young children to understand. Children will hear about what to expect from therapy and how therapists are very good at helping kids to solve problems. They will learn about the ins and outs of therapy and that therapy can be a positive and helpful experience!

Why It's On My Bookshelf: How do you tell your child they are going to see a therapist? Well this book is a great opening to that conversation. It's very concrete and positive. It talks about why you would go see a counselor, how long you will be there for, and what activities you might do. It also emphasizes it's a place where you can feel safe and solve problems. Excellent! I especially like the note to parents and caregivers at the end of the story. It gives great tips on how to support children in therapy so their experience is healing and helpful. 

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Book Review: The Color Monster - A Pop-Up Book of Feelings

By: Anna Llenas
Interest Level: Ages 4 and Up

About This Book: We teach toddlers to identify colors, numbers, shapes, and letters—but what about their feelings? By illustrating such common emotions as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and calm, this sensitive book gently encourages young children to open up. Kids will LOVE the bright illustrations and amazing 3-D pop-ups on every page!






Why It's On My Bookshelf: Super cool!! This is such a visually stunning pop-up book. When we received it my daughter was ooohhhing and ahhhhing each time we turned the page. This will be a fun addition to my social skills lessons on feelings identification. Can't wait to share it with students. 

A Link To This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:
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Book Review: In My Heart - A Book of Feelings

Author: Jo Witek
Illustrator: Christine Roussey
Interest Level: Ages 3 and Up

From the Book Jacket: Sometimes my heart feels like a big yellow star, shiny and bright. I smile from ear to ear and twirl around so fast, I feel as if I could take off into the sky. This is when my heart is happy. This book is a vibrant celebration of feelings, in all their shapes and sizes. 

Feelings Covered: Happy, Brave, Mad, Calm, Broken, Sad, Hopeful, Afraid, Silly, Shy, Proud

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Next year my goal is to run more social skills groups around identifying feelings. So I've been on the hunt for great reads in this area. I want to help kids create their own books on emotions during our group. In My Heart is a super cool one. There is a heart cutout through the whole book. I also like the feelings covered because they are so appropriate for my kindergarten groups. 



A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: 

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Book Review: The Great Big Book of Feelings


Author: Mary Hoffman
Illustrator: Ros Asquith
Interest Level: Ages 4 and Up

From the Book Jacket: Happy, sad, excited, bored, silly, shy, confident...Explore lots of different feelings with the children in this book, including how to share and talk about feelings, and how to help yourself feel better.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is a proactive book about feelings. It takes it a step further then just defining a feeling - it gives kids guidance on what to do with some of those emotions that might trip up their day. I'm happy to share this new one with students but was also reflecting as a parent how this will be going in my daughter's library. It's wonderful. 

Feelings covered: Happy, sad, excited, interested, angry, upset, calm, silly, lonely, scared, safe, embarassed, shy, confident, worried, jealous, satisfied, and bored.




A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: 

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Book Review: The Way I Feel Series


The Way I Feel Series
Author: Cornelia Maude Spelman
Illustrator: Kathy Parkinson 
Interest Level: Ages 3 and Up

Why They Are On My Bookshelf: This is such a helpful series on emotions for our students. They are in a basket at my peace table.  I introduce them in the beginning of the year and show students how to use them as a tool to overcome a challenging feeling. Each story shows children how to recognize the feeling and what they can do to feel better.



When I Feel Sad
"Sometimes I feel sad. I feel sad when someone won't let me play, or when I really want to tell about something and nobody listens. When someone else is sad, I feel sad, too. ... Sad is a cloudy, tired feeling. Nothing seems fun when I feel sad."

Children will take comfort in this story. Readers will recognize similar experiences in their own lives as this little guinea pig describes feeling sad when someone is cross or when something bad happens. Eventually our heroine realizes that feeling sad doesn't last forever.

When I Feel Scared
Children often feel afraid. This book, with its comforting words and illustrations, will help children address those fears and learn some new ways to cope with being afraid. First, a little bear describes some of the things that frighten him, like bad dreams or big, tall slides, or when his mother goes away. Sometimes, he just feels scared and doesn’t know why! But he learns there are things he can do to make himself feel better. A "Note to Parents and Teachers" reinforces the positive messages in the book.



 When I Feel Good About Myself
"I feel good about myself. Somebody loves me just as I am. I don't have to look like anyone else, be the same size, or do the same things. It's fine to be me."

This book offers children positive and upbeat examples about being themselves. The author portrays a very young guinea pig and friends feeling good about themselves through common situations readers will relate to. Together, the text and art will foster self-esteem and independence.
 
 When I Care About Others
 In today’s society, perhaps more than ever, young children need to develop empathy. In this simple book, the author begins by helping children see that when they are sick, hurt, or unhappy, others care about them. Children can then begin to see that others need to be cared about as well. Common situations will further a child’s appreciation for and understanding of what others feel and need.

When I Feel Jealous
A bear cub describes situations that make her jealous: when someone has something she wants, when someone is good at something she wants to be good at, and when someone else gets all the attention. "Jealousy is a prickly, hot, horrible feeling. I don't like feeling jealous, but—everybody feels jealous sometimes." The little bear finds ways to make herself feel better—she talks to someone about how she feels and then does something pleasant—and soon the jealous feeling goes away. 


When I Feel Angry
Anger is a scary emotion for young children, their parents, and caregivers. As this little bunny experiences the things that make her angry, she also learns ways to deal with her anger—ways that won't hurt others.






When I Miss You
Young children often experience anxiety when they are separated from their mothers or fathers. This newest title in "The Way I Feel" series features a young guinea pig who expresses her distress when her mother and father go away. "Missing you is a heavy, achy feeling. I don't like missing you. I want you right now!" Eventually the little guinea pig realizes that sometimes she and her parents can't be together. When that happens, she knows that others can help. "They can snuggle with me or we can play. It helps me to be warm and close to someone. They remind me that you'll be back."

When I Feel Worried
Everybody worries. Children worry, too—in new or confusing situations, or when someone is angry with them. This new addition to the acclaimed The Way I Feel Series uses reassuring words and touching illustrations to address a child’s anxieties and shows him ways to help him feel better. Cornelia Maude Spelman and Kathy Parkinson team up once again to provide a comforting and empowering book that’s helpful to all families. 





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Book Review: Visiting Feelings

by Lauren Rubenstein
illustrated by Shelly Hehenberger
Publisher: Magination Press

From the Book Jacket: Visiting Feelings harnesses a young child's innate capacity to fully experience the present moment. Rather than label or define specific emotions and feelings, Visiting Feelings, invites children to sense, explore, and befriend all of their feelings with acceptance and equanimity. Children can explore their emotions with their senses and gain an understanding of how feelings can lodge in the body, as conveyed by common expressions like "a pit in the stomach" or "a lump in the throat."

Children can cultivate mindfulness and nurture their emotional intelligence. In essence, mindfulness is tuning into yourself and paying attention to the present moment without judging or analyzing what you are thinking or feeling. Practicing mindfulness can enhance many aspects of a person's well-being, help develop insight and empathy, and build resilience.

**A Note to Parents provides more information about emotional awareness and  mindfulness; plus practical advice and activities for introducing mindfulness into your home and daily family routine.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Visiting Feelings is really helping me work with children who go into shutdown mode. Helping kids tune into their emotions can be really challenging and it's important I have lots of different types of feelings books on my shelf. This definitely sparks deeper thinking and gently encourages openness. It's been perfect for a small group setting with an art therapy. activity My goal for all the students in my school is that I am able to help their emotional intelligence grow. There are so many things we can do to help teach children how to tap into their feelings. This is a GREAT resource to do so.

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Book Review: Some Days Are Lonely


Author: Young-Ah Kim
Illustrator: Ji-Soo Shin
Interest Level: Ages 4 and Up

Book Description: Loneliness is a common emotion in both children and adults. As the bear progresses through the story, he experiences loneliness like stormy weather. By the end of the story, the storm has cleared and a rainbow comes out, signifying the transience of uncomfortable or unwelcome emotions. Creative activities for kids and a "Note to Parents" are included.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I'd like to use this book in a couple of ways: 1)to teach kids about the feeling of loneliness and how to overcome it and 2)to help children recognize when others are feeling down and how to help them out of a cloudy feeling. Helping kids be in touch with their empathetic heart is very important to me.

A few pages show the bear curled up looking sad: 




I have a few stuffed bears I plan on putting in this same body position. I think it's really powerful for them to see this visual and even hold the bear when he is curled up.

But then I had another therapy idea. This guy:

I think using this Care Bear (Cheer Bear) to talk about coping skills and how to turn the gloom around will be super helpful/visual to kids. The rainbow visual is what really sold me. The book reminds kids that when clouds pass - a rainbow might appear. If I remember right there is also a Care Bear with a sun on it - you could use that one too. Some Days Are Lonely really helped me dig into my creative counselor side. Just reading the story is not enough. You gotta really go for it. Another very healing book. Yes! 

PS. The activities on the back pages are EXCELLENT:
-If your heart were like the weather, what kind of weather would it be today?
-The window is open. If a friend would come by, happy to see you, which friend would you like to see? Draw that friend's face in the window.

A Link To This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:


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Book Review: How Do You Doodle?


Author/Illustrator: Elise Gravel
Interest Level: Ages 6 and Up
Publisher: Magination Press

A Note From the Publisher: How Do You Doodle? is a drawing book for kids to help them get in touch with and learn to express their emotions. The book is divided up into different fun doodle activities such as “name your feelings,” “what do you feel when,” and “how does it feel when” to help readers start thinking about what they experience when they are feeling an emotion. How do You Doodle? can be used alone, or in association with a therapist or parent to help kids better realize and understand their emotional responses to situations, and to help promote better emotional health.  

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is the coolest journal for kids to express their feelings. I have been using it in lessons, group, and individual counseling. The kid reaction to it has been really awesome. I'm also suggesting it to parents as a social/emotional outlet for at home. Check out some of the pages:






I'll be ordering lots more of these! Happy doodling!

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Book Review: Flabbersmashed About You


Author: Rachel Vail
Illustrated by Yumi Heo
Interest Level: Ages 5 and Up

From the Publisher: Readers first met Katie Honors in Rachel and Yumi's Sometimes I'm Bombaloo and Jibberwillies at Night. Now Katie is back as she deals with feeling "flabbersmashed" by her best friend, who suddenly wants to be friends with another kid. We've all been flabbersmashed by a friend--left out of an activity or secret, left to feel sorry for ourselves, or move on. Will Katie ever stop feeling left out?

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This will be a helpful read for K-2 students as the year gets rolling and friendship problems start surfacing. There is nothing worse than a tear stained face coming up to me and telling me how they've been "dumped" by their good buddy. In the book, Katie describes this as feeling "flabbersmashed." This word is an introduction to all sorts of emotions kids feel when they are left standing alone. Friendship security is a big deal out on the playground. I want to teach the kids to be secure in a different way. The dependence on one friend for their ultimate happiness can lead to constantly feeling "flabbersmashed." Not a good way to go through your school day. So glad to have this in my library. I will bet you anything that a student is going to come up to me on the playground and tell me they are feeling flabbersmashed!

There is something minor about the book I'd like to point out that had me a little concerned. When two of the characters are playing they talk about "killing the bad guys." I'm really careful with what I teach the kids. We have a zero tolerance for violent language at my school - even if it's just play fighting. So there are a couple of ways I might go with this. 1) I might just change the words 2) I might use this as a teaching opportunity about using these words. I'm not sure yet which way I'm going to go. I just know I don't want to send the kids mixed signals about the expectations of safe language out on the playground. Just wanted to point this out to other educators. It's still a great story and is going to help solve some major problems.


A Link To This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:

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Book Review: Steps and Stones: An Anh's Anger Story

Author: Gail Silver
Illustrated by Christiane Kromer
Interest Level: Ages 4-9

From the Book Jacket: Anh looked at his Anger. He hadn't seen him for awhile. "Why were you wearing all that stuff?" Anh asked. "I almost didn't recognize you." "I was trying to be inconspicuous," Anger whispered. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed at school."

When Anh's friends go off to play without him, he feels all alone. Then his anger shows up and suggests taking revenge. Instead, Anh discovers walking meditation and finds a path toward accepting his emotions and developing new friendships. 

Steps and Stones can help children learn to understand the causes of their own strong emotions. With humor and compassion, it teaches children and adults how walking meditation can be a tool to calm anger and resolve conflict. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: My lessons on keeping your cool in school just got a whole lot better. This is the sequel to Anh's Anger and it is an ESSENTIAL resource. Kids are managing their emotions all day long. But for certain kids, they have to work extra hard at managing their feelings of anger. As a school counselor, I rely on books like this to help teach calming down techniques kids will actually use.

Steps and Stones focuses on teaching children to cool off through breathing, counting and walking. Ahn's anger walks slowly with him as they do this exercise together. Slowly Ahn is able to work through the feeling and regain his balance. At my school, we teach kids to take a break when they are about to lose their cool. But just exactly what should they be doing during this break? Breathing, counting, and taking a walk should be a part of this routine. In fact, kids can even read this story when they are trying to get rid of anger.

I am thrilled to share such a healing book with our students, especially those who are stuck in constant anger. Parents, teachers, and counselors will appreciate having this on their shelf when they need to teach or reteach this important skill.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: 
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Book Review: How Do You Feel?


From the Book Jacket: Feelings. There are a lot of them in this book! You might feel confident or shy, bored, curious, worried - even silly! Or maybe you feel sad or lonely one day, and happy the next! There are many ways to answer the question, How do you feel?

Why It's On My Bookshelf: I got this book a couple of weeks ago and have been doing some thinking on how I want to turn it into a lesson plan. So last week I was teaching in a 3rd grade class when I saw (see picture below)......

This fabulous monkey!  It completely reminded me of How Do You Feel? because of the monkey theme in it. Hmmmm.....now how can I use this cute guy in my lesson with the book? Here is my genius idea for the lesson:

Don't MONKEY around with other people's feelings

In fact, wouldn't that be a great idea for a book!? Okay, well until I get around to taking on that kind of project I'm going to develop a fabulous lesson plan for now.  I'm going to read the story as an introduction to feelings then bring in my handsome monkey dude to talk about how important it is to not MONKEY around with somebody's emotions. I feel like it will really spark some discussion and get kids thinking. Really excited to do more feelings work with kids using this awesome book.

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