The Story of My Feelings by Laurie Berkner

Berkner, Laurie. (1999). The Story of My Feelings. Illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church. New York: Orchard Books

The Story of My Feelings is just that, a story of my feelings. Not just my feelings, but everyone’s feelings! Every person feels emotions and people need to be aware that the world is not just about them; one person is not the only one with feelings. The Story of My Feelings gives the reader insight to how one little girl is feeling, what happens when she feels that way, and what happens when she is finished feeling that way. For example, when the little girl is sad, she cries. The little girl then feels better after she cries and then she goes on to laugh and be happy and feels even better.

Caroline Jayne Church uses a variety of media to illustrate this book. She uses a collage format with different textures and outlined in ink to separate items and/ or colors. The illustrations really bring to life the emotions that the little girl is talking about. When she is happy or feels better, there is a sunny day with flowers and the little girl playing with her puppy. When the little girl is yelling, an explosion is shown that the little girl is standing far away from, showing that she does not like to yell and that she knows that yelling is loud and can sometimes hurt things or people who are too close to the explosion. The illustrations can even help the reader guess what emotion is being pictured without reading the words, especially if a child is learning how to read. The illustrations really make the reader think about what their own emotions would look like if they were drawn and colored.

Laurie Berkner uses repetitive text to help younger children learn how to read. It can also help students learn how to express themselves. Oftentimes, children who like to read are inspired to write their own stories. This story of feelings ay inspire younger children to write or draw their feelings, especially if they cannot express their feelings in a social way. It may even teach children about how to deal with their feelings. The little girl feels better after she cries, laughs, yells, and sighs, so other children may feel that way too and recognize it.

A lot of young children have no problem expressing their feelings, but children who are starting to grow up may close in on themselves and start to believe that only they feel a certain way because they fight to express it. This book would be a great wordless book activity for children to participate in. Wordless books are “wordless” and are only made up of pictures, leaving the reader to sort of make up their own story based on what they see in the illustrations. Children could draw their feelings and put the drawings together in a book. They can show what they see or how they think they look when they feel certain emotions.