Homeschool Friday - I Know Mad

Homeschool Friday is a feature here at Somewhere Only We Know that showcases books my family reads during homeschool and provides a mini-review for each.

I Know Mad (We Find Feeling Clues)

By: Lindsay N. Giroux

Illustrated By: Alicia Teba Godoy

Publication: September 3, 2024 by Free Spirit Publishing

36 pages

Genre: Children's, Emotions

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon )

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Goodreads description--Children learn to recognize and cope with feeling mad, frustrated, and jealous.

A young feelings detective looks for clues, both physical and emotional, to identify anger, frustration, and jealousy in themselves and in others. The child uses a special notebook to draw their feelings and identify how they feel. By noticing the clues, the feelings detective is able to find a new plan to overcome feeling jealous and even help their mom when she is feeling frustrated.

We Find Feelings Clues

Increase children's emotion vocabulary and boost their emotional literacy. This series helps children learn how to find, notice, and use a variety of clues to identify and name their emotions and those of others. Clues are found in facial expressions and body language, sensations within the body, and knowledge of past experiences. After identifying an emotion, children also learn how they can feel better when their emotions are overwhelming. Each book features a child using the tool of the feelings detective notebook to record their feelings through drawings and words. Additional information and strategies on recognizing and dealing with feelings are included at the back of each book.

I Know Mad helps in the important task of teaching children how to label their emotions. The book guides them through a variety of situations, facial expressions, and ways their bodies might feel during the emotions of anger, frustration, and jealousy. I know there's a limit to the amount of information you can include in a children's book, but I wish that anger being a secondary emotion would have been discussed. Anger (or as the book describes "mad") happens after another emotion like sadness, fear, loneliness, or hurt. Understanding our emotions is crucial to having good mental health as well as healthy relationships.

I Know Mad did focus on coping strategies. The idea of a "feel better basket" is one that I might incorporate into my own home. Suggestions were even made about what to include in this type of basket. Asking for help from an adult and talking things out with someone else were both strategies used. Most of all, empathy towards others who might be feeling similar strong emotions is a great inclusion to this topic. The last page of the book shows the word "calm" on the artwork that a child created for his emotional artwork. Calmness is the goal. I recently heard the saying "All emotions are welcome, but not all behavior is welcome." And I think even though calmness is the goal, teaching children that some emotions are negative lends to some shame around feeling those emotions when they do arise, which they inevitably will.

I read I Know Mad with my six-year-old son who struggles with regulating his emotions and frequently falls into anger and frustration. I think the ideal age for this book is a little younger than my son. But I asked him when we were done reading it if he thought it would help children understand and work through their anger. He said he thought so. Now, is this a book that he wants to read again? Not really, unfortunately. I can see where my younger son might benefit from this book even more, I just haven't had an opportunity to read it with him since it's on my computer instead of my phone or a physical copy.

I Know Mad is a great introduction to helping young kids understand, label, and process their emotions of mad, frustration, and jealousy. I do wish there were a few things that were added or different. Overall, I think I Know Mad gets 4 Stars. Have you read I Know Mad? What did you think? Let me know!