Book Review - "In my Heart" by Jo Witek. A book about feelings.

In My Heart lyrically explains what an emotion feels like, physically, inside. For example: "When I get really angry, my heart feels like it's going to explode! Don't come near me! My heart is yelling, hot and loud. This is when my heart is mad." - Jo Witek

  

This book is available from a number of different online stores.  I purchased this from Fishpond.  It is a hardcover book that retails for around $22 - $26 incl. postage.

This book was reviewed by my daughter who just turned 6 who has good emotional literacy skills.

"Miss A was VERY excited to read this book based on the cover page.  There is a die cut heart on the cover creating a multi coloured heart which is the depth of the book.  It is on each page and decreases in size as you read each page.

Review by a 6 year old - Miss A
"I was really excited when I saw the book because I thought it was about loving people.
It was telling you about her feelings.  Sometimes the girl is afraid or nervous or angry or happy."

Did you like the book? Yes, I liked the whole lot.  I like how the heart kept going.
What did you learn? I learnt about feelings. I learnt that sometimes you hide away your heart.

CONCLUSION
This book was recommended for toddlers.  However, Miss 6 really enjoyed it.  Given that emotional literacy is such an important skill to develop I would say that this book would be relevant and useful for toddlers AND school age children 8 and under (depending on level of emotional literacy).

It is a very simplistic book that covers so much. 

• It talks of having different types of feelings e.g.  big/small, loud/quiet
• It names a number of feelings such as happy, brave, angry/mad, calm, broken, heavy/sad, hopeful, scary/afraid, silly, shy, proud
• Not only does it name the feelings but it describes how each feeling may feel and gives an example or the behaviour we may see.
• The little girl's facial expressions aligns with the feeling talked about.  This gives adults the opportunity to talk about how she looks and feels and making the connection.
• It gave a place where our feelings belong - in our heart

One thing that I really liked about this book was that it was still in story form which will appeal to children.  The language used was very age appropriate and aligned with the illustrations.  The illustrations by Christine Roussey were simple but very effective and engaging.  It was very clever how they developed the story around the heart and the die cut heart.

The story ends with the author describing how her heart felt and asking the question "How does your heart feel?"  I like this for 3 reasons;

1. Firstly it allows children to consider that other's have feelings
2. Secondly it opens the door for the children to be able to express how they are feeling and may generate some talk
3. Thirdly it provides a statement that can be used going forward.  If you are unsure of how your children is feeling you can say "How does your heart feel right now?"

I would definitely recommend this book for both parents, Early Childhood Centres and Schools.  My daughter has read it a couple of times now and still enjoys it.  While the main character is a girl, I would say that it is still very relevant for boys and does not stand out as only being for girls.

When developing emotional literacy it is important that children learn to identify different feelings, name them and learn what they feel like and how they look.  This book offers all those aspects.   A lovely story which also provides great learning. I look forward to reviewing other books in this series by Jo Witek & Christine Roussey.