Heather Collins’s settings are of small, plain, cluttered spaces. The main character shares a bedroom with a sibling and, on the first page, wakes up on the bottom of a bunk bed. A desk fits snugly to one side of it and simple boxes store books and toys under and beside it. Handmade, unframed pictures decorate the walls. There’s little counter space in the kitchen. In one scene, the mother sits at a sewing machine—I can’t recall any other picture book with a sewing room. I once owned a woven basket like the one tipped on its side beside a tower of building blocks.
The theme of Feelings, by Joanne Brisson Murphy, is timeless. There’s always room on the bookshelf for another book about emotions. Murphy writes in rhyme about childhood dramas and the rhyme works for me. “Sometimes when I daydream by myself in my room, I feel quiet like a mouse, or a whisper, or the moon.” Written in the first person, neither the text nor pictures label gender. A sports jersey, plush animals, a doll house, cars and trucks, and baby doll make appearances. The father gifts a baseball mitt, but this doesn’t require a father-to-son interpretation.
Feelings is copyrighted 1985; however, this edition, from August 1994 is its 5th. Financial assistance toward publication came from the Canada
Council and the Ontario Arts Council. It was printed in Canada “using recycled
paper and environmentally friendly processes.”
Ridiculous Rachel has Feelings: expressing emotions and having healthy friendships. Miss Beck has an Emotions Themed Game Board. Dr. Gerry and Prof Y has Social Emotional Learning and Self- Awareness: My cup of Feelings.
