Sometimes I Grumblesquinch (A Big Feelings Book)
by Rachel Vail (Author) Hyewon Yum (Illustrator)
A sweet and touching exploration of the scariness of BIG feelings and overcoming the pressures to do everything "just right," in this companion title to bestselling picture book Sometimes I'm Bombaloo.
Katie Honors is a really nice kid. But there's one little secret that sometimes makes her feel not-so-nice deep inside: her little brother, Chuck. Katie loves her brother and works hard to be the perfect big sister but it can be hard. Chuck can sometimes be just so icky and messy. Sometimes it makes Katie secretly wish she had a trampoline or a treehouse or a giraffe instead of a brother. When all these emotions bubble up to the surface, Katie can no longer grumblesquinch them down. She explodes, but she also learns an important lesson: that there's room for ALL of her feelings, even the scary ones.
Sometimes I Grumblesquinch masterfully explores the pressure children often feel to be perfect all the time and helps them realize that it's okay to share frustrating, and at times, not-so-nice thoughts and seek comfort from adults to help them manage those feelings. This story explores key social emotional skills that kids need to navigate complicated feelings, and will live alongside bestsellers like When Sophie Gets Really Really Angry and How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad. Once again, Rachel Vail taps into universal childhood experiences that are often left unexplored, and does so with sensitivity, humor, and respect for the wide range of emotions kids face today.
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Kirkus Reviews
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2--Self-described "really nice kid" Katie Honors always aims to please. Polite, well-behaved, and flexible, she earns compliments from her parents: "Katie is such a pleasure." The reality beneath this veneer of perfection, of course, is a range of emotions, positive and negative. Her toddler brother Chuck has a knack for provoking her in small ways that her mother and father either overlook or minimize with platitudes: "You don't mind, do you?" and "Chuck loves you!" Since her appearance as the protagonist of Vail's Sometimes I'm Bombaloo, Katie has learned to suppress her feelings by "grumblesquinching," her idiosyncratic term for bottling up anger and sadness inside. After her pent-up frustration finally explodes in the form of a tantrum, she fears that she has irreparably damaged her parents' opinion of her. To her relief, her mother responds not with judgment but with warm understanding--she is accepted, anger and all. Vail creates a strikingly honest portrait of family relationships, sensitively probing the all-too-common adult habit of using praise to avoid uncomfortable but necessary emotional dialogue. Yum's bright, expressive colored pencil drawings cleverly externalize the progression of Katie's emotional response: as she loses her composure, strands of her hair begin to float up into sinister tentacles, and the image on her shirt subtly shifts from a rainbow to a storm cloud. VERDICT This tender, insightful exploration of childhood emotion and respectful parenting is an important purchase for all collections.--Jonah Dragan
Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Praise for Sometimes I'm Bombaloo:
Emotions bubble over in this wise picture book about how a child deals with anger. Katie Honors is a self-described "really good kid," generally obedient, kind and conscientious. Heo's (Father's Rubber Shoes) highly patterned rnixed-media illustrations, alternately warm and perky, use vibrant backgrounds, blocks of color and carefully chosen images to depict Katie's emotional tornado. Memorable scenes include Katie seated against a stark black background during her time-out, and an up-close view of her in the throes of a Bombaloo moment. — Publishers Weekly
* A keen-eyed view on the evolution and eruption of a child's tantrum and its aftermath. Heo's...intensely colorful, gloriously outlandish illustrations are a perfect match for Vail's text. Changes in perspective, spot images strewn over the pages, and slashes of energy emanating from fists and face mirror Katie's turbulent emotions while their over-the-top quality diffuses some of the tension aroused by the tale. An honest and understanding appraisal of tantrums from the child's perspective. — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* Vail gets right inside a kid's psyche, and Heo's inventive artwork catches the kaleidoscope of emotions found there in a book that is both realistic and funny. Kudos to Vail and Heo for making a scary subject manageable. — Booklist, starred review
Anger is the subject of this wonderfully illustrated and beautifully designed picture book. The subject and age of the character in this title bear a very close resemblance to those in Molly Bang's When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry (Scholastic, 1999), yet they are different enough in voice and mode of resolution that most collections will want both. — School Library Journal
Hyewon Yum is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed picture books, including Sometimes I Kaploom, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten!, which received the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit Hyewon online at hyewonyum.com.
Rachel Vail is the award-winning author of more than 40 beloved books. Her picture books include Sometimes I'm Bombaloo and Sometimes I Kaploom, a Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year. Her most recent novels for young people are Bad Best Friend; Well, That Was Awkward; and the A is For Elizabeth series, all Junior Library Guild Gold selections. Rachel lives in New York City with her husband, their two sons, and a tortoise named Lightning. Visit rachelvail.com.
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
Picture books
Emotions
