Book Review: Visiting Feelings

By Lauren Rubenstein

What it’s about:

Feelings! This book invites children to experience their feelings, pay attention to them, and invite them in to play. Children reading this book can explore their feelings using their senses and can learn how feelings sit in the body. Giving kids the power to really focus on feelings can help them navigate those tricky feelings as they come and go throughout their lives.

What we love about it:

This is essentially a mindfulness book. It helps kids focus on the present moment – the feeling they are experiencing right now – and gain a deeper understanding. The idea of treating feelings like guests aligns with what we know to be true but that kids sometimes struggle with, which is the idea that feelings come and go. Like a visitor in your home, these feelings won’t stay forever. That’s true for good and bad feelings. This book helps kids find a way to identify what they’re feeling by asking a series of questions “Is it bright like the sun? Dark like the rain? Or is it a look you can’t even explain? Now, how does it feel? Is it light as a cloud, floating on air? Or heavy and huge like a grizzly bear?”

Feelings can be overwhelming for kids. Give this book a shot! It might help them make sense of some of those big emotions.