Something adults take for granted is having a feelings vocabulary–knowing what to call your emotions. This book helps kids express their feelings before they have all the right words in place (and, as a bonus, it helps them learn the right words too). The concept is simple: each double-page spread has a highly expressive fish and a single word next to it describing its state of mind (for example: curious, nervous, brave, astonished, bored, and delighted). We don’t really read this book straight through; we flip through it to find the fish(es) that looks like we feel. This is one of my oldest’s very favorite books; he says he will never get rid of it.
Author: Mies Van Hout
Illustrator: Mies Van Hout