Big Feelings and What They Tell Us by Rebekah Ballagh

Title: Big Feelings and What They Tell Us

Author: Rebekah Ballagh

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 30^th August 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 80

Price: $29.99

Synopsis: Bestselling author of Note to Self, Note to Self Journal and Words of Comfort, Rebekah Ballagh, turns her attention to helping children learn to understand their emotions, how they make them feel and how to manage them.​

Mikah feels so sad . . .
Chloe’s feeling angry . . .
Charlie feels anxious . . .

Feelings are messages from the heart!

Big Feelings helps you to understand your emotions, how they make you feel and how you can manage them.

Includes strategies and resources for parents, caregivers and teachers.

Rebekah Ballagh’s strong counselling background combines perfectly with her empathetic storytelling and adorable illustrations.

‘One of the best books I’ve seen about emotions. Rebekah goes beyond linking emotions to colours or naming them but also describes how they make your body feel and how to manage them. I highly recommend this book for all parents and educators.’ School Library News

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As we have all lived through the upheaval, trauma, and uncertainty of the past two years that is ongoing, there have been many discussions and heightened awareness – much more than pre-COVID – of mental health and the impacts of isolation and being cut off from society. These have always been around, for many people who experience isolation on a regular basis due to disability, age, homelessness, and issues surrounding employment and a myriad of other issues and situations that can impact loneliness, isolation, and our mental health. But perhaps because the pandemic has and did affect a wider population group in terms of loneliness, mental health, and in the specific case of this book, the mental health and feelings of children are the focus in the new book by Rebekah Ballagh. Of course, there had, from what I have seen, been many discussions about getting people to talk about their feelings and ways to help children cope with their feelings.

Everyone has feelings and not everyone knows how to deal with them, and at times, it can be hard to name them. And if we as adults think it is hard for us, when we have experience with various feelings, it can be much harder for kids to express their feelings and what they are – and everyone will find ways to express, name, or act out their feelings in different age, regardless of their age. Even adults, I guess, can have these issues. Sometimes finding the words is too hard – you feel in the moment and there are times that only clarity of mind can help you work out what you were feeling. Which is hard at any age when people around you want to know what you’re feeling in the moment, and what it can mean to you whatever your age. For kids, this can be hard when people want to help but don’t know how, and the only way they do know about trying is to ask what is wrong whilst in the midst of the Big Feeling.

Rebekah’s book goes through fourteen different emotions that kids and adults feel intensely, and what they mean for the kids in this book. It reassures kids that it is okay to have these feelings, that it is okay to not really know what to do at the time, and I think even as adults, we need to remember this, because it can help us work out what is going on in our lives. I found that this book explained the feelings nicely and without judgement – and I think had a hidden message that nobody – regardless of our age. I think this is a book we could all benefit from reading. I loved that after the story, it had a variety of exercises and tasks to do with kids to explore feelings – they can work to help in the moment or to process feelings, or as an educational tool to help children understand what their feelings might be in a safe place, maybe when they’re not having Big Feelings to help them find ways they can cope with feelings, and I think some things can be used by people of all ages!

This is another interesting picture book for older readers, and one that I think will transcend readerships.