In My Heart: A Book of Feelings (Growing Hearts)

Great book for exploring different emotions with kids and helping them learn to identify all of things they feel.

I found In My Heart on a book store website while I was looking for something new for my 3 year old twins. I had never heard of this book, but after reading reviews and looking at sample pages, I knew it would be very good! I love how the introduction says "My heart is like a house with so many feelings living inside", because it's easy for a child to understand. Then each page has a different emotion: happy, brave, mad, calm, broken hearted, sad, hopeful, afraid, silly, shy and proud. It's important to understand all emotions, and the author has described them very well. But even broken hearted doesn't make the book sad! It says we need extra kisses! The order of the emotions is perfect and it ends happily. The last page asks "How does your heart feel?" and I was excited to hear what my daughters would say. I thought they'd choose from the book, but they said "Just right!" :) They love to quote from books and have already started doing so with this book. It's hard to choose a book when you can't actually flip through it, but I am very happy with this one and would recommend it to anyone! The colorful hearts are a nice touch too!

After one reading, my three-year-old was already trying to recite parts of it, like he does with all his favorite books. The illustrations are cute and sweet, and the language is very descriptive. Great for teaching kids how to put words to their emotions. Update: after a few weeks, this book has become a major coping tool. This morning, my son came out of his room and started crying three or four times in a row, presumably because he was overwhelmed by his baby sister. I offered to read it to him, and on the "hopeful" page, which comes right after the "sad" page and reassures the child that sadness doesn't last forever, my son looked up at me and smiled. At he end, he requested I read it again, and he's been calm ever since. I am adding this book to my go-to list of gifts for babies and toddlers. It is amazing.

This book really a great introduction to emotional intelligence for little kids. The illustrations and descriptions are simple yet evocative of the feeling examined on each page. The heart cut-outs are really engaging and it's cool to see how they're incorporated on each page. I started reading this to my kiddo when she was not quite two, and it's amazing to see how she relates more deeply to the emotions as she nears the age of three. It has really guided the way she talks about her feelings. I also like that the main character is fun and playful and slightly tomboyish, so it doesn't feel out of place as a gift for either gender. This is one of those that I give as a gift to every kid I love.