Feelings Are Wild

This colourful hardback Picture Book Feelings Are Wild is a delight to the eye. The many animal characters are all different and encourage scrutiny of the details. The main storyline is about feelings, what they look like and how they can be managed.

The story begins with one baby koala who has not had enough sleep. He is tearful and kicking over his blocks. The next page shows two nervous bunnies followed by three lion cubs then four crocs who are feeling frustrated. The numbers continue until we have seen ten quokkas feeling excited. Each page demonstrates how a feeling might look. Then the counting goes down from ten.

Feelings change on each page. The nine frightened kittens are feeling surprised instead of afraid. The “Eight penguins feel reassured, but still rather glum.” Each page shows a positive outcome until we get to the one baby Koala who was grumpy. He is shown tucked up on his mum fast asleep.

This is a well-crafted story particularly useful for enabling children to speak of WHAT they are feeling. The words in italics such as “Cheerful, Peaceful, Reassured, “show animals experiencing that feeling. Feelings Are Wild is a counting book, an animal story, and a clever look at feelings for the young. The art work enhances the text greatly.