Feelings Forecasters/ Relationship Navigators by Maria Mercé Conangla & Jaume Soler

Feelings Forecasters/ Relationship Navigators by Maria Mercé Conangla & Jaume Soler is comprised of five chapters teaching children about ’emotional ecology’. The lessons teach children how to recognise what they are feeling, what it might mean, and how to handle it, along with the consequences of remaining blind to your denser emotions and what they are trying to tell you. Each chapter has a series of exercises, each with reflection questions and considerations. The beginning of each chapter also has lessons on environmental ecology that are relevant to the chapter topics. I like the use of weather and weather protection imagery of Feelings Forecasters, and the nature inspired imagery of Relationship Navigators. Even though those aren’t my first analogy choice, they are good ones, and imagery of any kind is how the subconscious learns and works best. If we want lasting change, it has to come from there, not our conscious thinking. These are clearly books for teachers, rather than ones to be read by children themselves. That being the case, a little more guidance for the teacher may be helpful. Unless the teacher is a psychologist, or exceptionally skilled at emotional intelligence, they are likely to stumble while helping kids with some tasks since many adults are not savvy to their own emotional undercurrents either. I wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork. It’s not a style that really resonated with me.

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Schiffer Publishing for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

 

 

Love Big by Kat Kronenberg

Kronenberg’s Love Big follows Baboon’s adventures on the African Savanna. Drought has come to the savanna, and the animals begin to grow mean and selfish as food becomes scarce. After seeing an act of kindness by Rhinoceros, Baboon sees how things change, and tries out his theory by helping Lion. Can Baboon help the other savanna animals learn the value of kindness? This was a cute read with lovely artwork. Baboon’s lesson spreads, though each savanna resident learns something different. One important lesson is how to maintain your kindness even when people treat you nasty. At the end is a section of suggestions for kids on how to be kind to others. This would be a great addition to any classroom, or kid’s library.

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Greenleaf Book Group for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

 

Dream Big by Kat Kronenberg

Dream Big by Kat Kronenberg follows Baboon’s adventures on the African Savanna. Baboon sees his fellow animals wish upon a star at night so that their dreams might come true. Tadpole wants legs to dance with, Flamingo wants to be beautiful, not fuzzy grey, Caterpillar wants to fly. When his friends dreams start coming true, Baboon decides to follow suit. This book had cute art, but the message fell flat for me. It’s lesson of not limiting your dreams is a good message, but important caveats are missing. Simply wishing isn’t enough to make your dreams come true. You still gotta have persistence and dedication. Turning lead to gold requires not just belief, but hard work as well. These ‘dreams’ of the animals, too, are things that would have happened to them anyway, wish or no. For the most part, they are passive dreams, not requiring real effort in the critter’s part. And some dreams require way more hard work and in some cases luck than others do. Some will never come true. No matter how much I wish, dream, pray, or work hard, I’m not ever going to gain my eye back. Despite scientific breakthroughs, I’ll likely be long gone before the medical sciences are advanced enough to give me a prosthesis capable of seeing better than my remaining eye. Just saying…

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Greenleaf Book Group for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.