Reviews

Shout it out! Yoga therapy for emotional resilience by Loranine Rushton & Adele Vincent. Illus. by Andrew McIntosh

This book is for children who may be experiencing big feelings leading to frustration and responses to situations that may not be quite as they want. Jasmine is having one of those days where all is not going as well as expected. She tries very hard to change her way of responding and thinking and some important yoga poses and techniques are helping her to get through her day.

The long text is broken up by the use of larger font to emphasis key words. The illustrations show images of Jasmine initiating the yoga poses and in the final pages are the individual poses clearly shown with supporting instructions.

This picture book may be a resource for all who struggle with negative feelings and the yoga may help contain or refocus their feelings.

Themes Big Feelings, Children, Yoga, Emotional Resilience.

Kathryn Beilby

I love you night and day by Smriti Prasadam-Halls

Ill. by Alison Brown. Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 9781408839737.
(Age: Preschool-6) Recommended. Love.
A celebration of love, this picture book sends out a loud and heart warming message about the power of love that a parent has for a child:
'I love you wild, I love you loud.
I shout it out and I feel proud.
I love you night, I love you day.
In every moment come what may.'
Vivid colours bring the illustrations alive and are a perfect complement to the story that just begs to be read aloud by a parent who wants to reassure a child that he or she is well loved. It would be an ideal present for parents and is sure to be a book that becomes a favourite with both adult and child and is an ideal way for both to express love.
I particularly enjoy books that extol the virtues of love and this one could be paired with Sam McBratney's Guess how much I love you and Margaret Wild's On the day that you were born.
Pat Pledger

And Red Galoshes by Glenda Millard and Jonathan Bentley

Little Hare, 2011. ISBN 9781921541469.
Picture book. Recommended. Subtitled A story about a rainy day, two small children get up to all sorts of adventures using their bright red galoshes and their imaginations. The little girl fills one up with leaves to throw around while the little boy uses his as a kite that soars high in the sky. The wind gets into their umbrella and swoops them up into the air, with their little dog safely in the galosh. What fun to have galoshes in wet windy weather.
In a deceptively simple verse story, Millard has used internal rhyme like the lovely line 'Kite tails swooping, dancing, looping' to make this story stand out. The repetition of the phrase 'and red galoshes' ends each sentence and makes for an ideal word for a toddler who can shout it out, or for a new reader who can begin to see how words are structured.
Jonathan Bentley's delightful watercolour illustrations make the reader's imagination soar with the words. With a rainy day palette of soft blues and greys, the vivid red of the galoshes stands out.
Ideal for use with young children in a unit of work on weather, the seasons, rainy days, and the wind, this book is one that grew on me the more I read it.
Pat Pledger