Children's Picture Book Review

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

Title: The Way I Feel
Author: Janan Cain
Illustrator: Janan Cain
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Publisher: Scholastic
Copyright Date: 2001
Pages: 32 Pages
Awards: First Place for Publishers Association of the West’s 
18th Annual Western U.S. Book Design and Production Competition for the category of Children’s Picture Book.

Summary: This is a wonderful book that shows children experiencing different emotions. The text is supported by the illustrations which connect the words to the emotion. Silly, scared, disappointed, happy, sad, angry, thankful, frustrated are just some of the emotions that are shared in this book along with many more. 

Educational Purpose: I would use this book with my students of all ages to cover the range of emotions. Including frustration, shyness, jealousy, and pride. We would discuss each emotion for example scared. What does it mean? What does it look like? Have you ever felt scared? For my younger students I would have them color a picture to answer the questions, but for my older students I would have them write short sentences explaining their answers. Its important for children to have words to name their feelings, and that is why I would have activities that go over the different ranges of emotions.

Grade Level: This book would be great for preschool aged children. you could also use this book for children up to second grade. The illustrations are strong and colorful and have expressive images to go along with the verses to help the children connect the words with the emotions. There is not a lot of text, therefore you could use this as guided reading with your student. No Lexile Available.

Ratings:

					Comments
Plot	Excellent plot that is clever and has many surprising twists.	Good plot that has some surprises.	This is an okay plot that is kinda interesting.	Loose plot with many holes, and fails to grab the reader’s attention.	There are not any surprises but this is a good book that has clever rhymes and descriptions for the emotions.
Character	Excellent characterization. The characters are complex and provide a strong emotional impact on the reader.	The characters are believable and the reader can relate to them, and feel an emotional tie to the characters.	The characters are lacking but likable. There is some emotional attachment to the characters.	The characters are poorly described, and leave the reader feeling detached from the book.	The characters are great and use good descriptions that are connected to their feelings. This helps the reader feel engaged.
Illustration	Excellent illustrations. Very detailed, creative, and connected to the book.	Illustrations were good and showed something important about the book.	The illustrations were okay, they were not very creative.	There was no illustrations, or they were not interesting.	Absolutely amazing illustrations. The details and colors are strong and vivid and captivate you.
Recommendation	Excellent book that I highly recommend having in your classroom or library. This book will captivate, enchant, fascinate, and basically make you obsess about it.	Good book that I recommend having in your classroom or library. The book was interesting and kept my interest and was overall very engaging.	This book was okay. I believe this would be a book to check out from the library if you're feeling bored.	This book was awful and I cannot recommend it for your classroom or library. This book will leave you wishing you could rewind time so you don’t read it.	I love this book and find it so fun to read. The rhymes are fun, and use can really use tone when reading this book to your family or your students.