SOMETIMES I FEEL THAT WAY TOO follows a young child over the course of a day -- from breakfast with family to activities at school, afternoon play, and more. Along the way, the child encounters everyday objects and creatures that stir different feelings in him: a reluctant autumn leaf holding tightly to a bare tree branch, a lively hamster being silly in her cage, or a lonely orange that no one picks at snack time. In each interaction he finds a mirror for his own emotions, and a reminder that all the subtle, complex, nuanced feelings he has inside of him are normal and simply part of life. From Hannah Beach, an emotional health and play-based learning consultant, and sought-after public speaker, comes a gentle story, brought to life with charming details and expressive characters. Together with award-winning illustrator Rebecca Bender, Sometimes I Feel That Way Too, affirms for children and adults alike, that we all experience a wide-range of emotions--each day--and that these feelings are healthy and normal and simply ask to be felt.
Hannah gives talks for parents and professionals across the globe, speaking about how we can create the conditions for resilience through relationship and play.
About the Author :
Hannah Beach is an award-winning educator, author, emotional health consultant, and keynote speaker. She is the co-author, with Tamara Neufeld Strijack, of the #1 Globe & Mail bestseller, Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever--and What We Can Do About It, a trauma-informed resource for educators and parents, now being translated into multiple languages internationally. Her bestselling I Can Dance book series, supporting the emotional health of children through expressive play won a gold medal at the 2017 International Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. Hannah gives talks for parents and professionals across the globe, speaking about how we can create the conditions for resilience through relationship and play.
Hannah lives in picturesque Nanaimo, British Columbia
Find her at hannahbeach.ca
Author-illustrator Rebecca Bender is best known for her award-winning Giraffe and Bird picture books and Ballewiena. Her illustrations also grace the chapter books Slug Days, Penguin Days, Duck Days and The Halifax Explosion: 6 December 1917, at 9:05 in the morning, which was nominated for the inaugural Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award and was an OLA Yellow Cedar Honour Book. She lives in Burlington, Ontario, with her husband and four children.
Review :
"This beautiful book shows respect for children on every page. So much to love!" - Raffi, Singer, Author, Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring
"Giving voice to your feelings is not always easy and it is especially challenging for children who don't always have the words to do so. Hannah Beach, an emotional health and play-based learning consultant, gives both an appropriate and playful means by which children might express those feelings, especially with Rebecca Bender's lively artwork to give them context.
A child awakens and sees their teddy bear snuggled up against the dog, and declares that, "Sometimes I feel that way too." In a series of double-page spreads, this child goes through their day, sensing how a balloon might be excited, or how a lone tree leaf in autumn might feel sad, or how all the boots lined up at school feel like they belong. In each case, he expresses the circumstances in which he might feel the same way. At school, at home, or on a walk in the rain, at play, at learning, or eating, this little boy feels a lot and can always find something that mirrors his feelings. Sometimes they're joyous and exuberant emotions like the popping of popcorn, but sometimes they're less so like when they feel lonely, angry or disappointed. In each case, the child sees something in their everyday life that reflects that feeling.
The words Hannah Beach uses, via her little character, are words that young children will understand, as are the feelings. Whether it's a snail tucked up in their shell, or a lonesome orange that doesn't get picked for a snack, or a stacking block game that topples, it's all seen from this child's point of view. Illustrator Rebecca Bender does the same, emphasizing what the child sees and feels. Her artwork, created with a soft blend of gouache, watercolour, pencil, collage, and digital media, emphasizes the child who appears throughout the day, inside a school or home and outside, displaying a full range of emotions. We see that range in his face, in his eyes, in his body language, and in his smile. Rebecca Bender makes us see all the feelings he's feeling. Just as she has consistently done in all her books--including her award-winning Giraffe and Bird series (see Giraffe and Bird Together Again [2018]) and How Do You Feel? (2016)--Rebecca Bender gives us a lightness to a big message.
If you're a teacher or a parent who wants to help a child express their emotions in their own terms, Sometimes I Feel That Way Too would provide a perfect starting point. Children could find their own examples of what looks sad or lonely, angry or disappointing from within their own activities and experiences. Feelings are very personal, so it only makes sense to connect them to a child's own daily life. And, when they communicate those feelings in their own way--this child likes to draw the items that mirror his emotions--those who care for them will be better equipped to help.
Helen Kubiw, Canlit for Little Canadians
Beach's book educates in the best ways. It suggests the sheer variety of experiences and responses to them that every single being--gerbil, orange, snail, sister--might encounter. The story highlights the boy's empathy as well as his sympathy. It also foregrounds the boy's healthy self-regard: his okaying his sister's feelings, the soup's frustration, the leaf's sadness, and the balloon's disappointment is also tacit permission for him--and everyone else for that matter--to accept the shifting multitudes within.
Brett Josef Grubisic, The BC Review
