Gillian Shields (text) & Georgie Birkett (illustrations)
(Picture Corgi)
Sometimes I Feel Sunny is part of the My First Picture Books series from Picture Corgi which aims at closing the gap between baby board books and longer, traditional picture books. Each book in the series focuses on concepts that toddlers and preschoolers are beginning to grasp, using a simple narrative and bold and attractive artwork. Shapes, colours, objects, sounds, counting, words are all covered in this collection of books, which is also very toddler-friendly physically, as they are printed on tough wipe-clean card, with safe rounded corners. It really is a lovely series, which helps language development and build the enjoyment of storytime.
In Sometimes I Feel Sunny, readers are introduced to four little friends as they go about their daily routine and explore the emotions that each young child feels in every day life. Sometimes they feel happy, sometimes sad, or even brave or angry.
Little people can be left confused by how they feel and feelings are certainly a difficult concept to explain to such young children. This little book goes a long way at explaining that is ok to feel grumpy, or sad, or small, and acknowledging those feelings. The simple text and artwork make it easy for those little readers to grasp those concepts. Georgie Birkett’s style is bright and joyful and conveys the innocence of childhood beautifully.
A lovely book which is well worth investigating, as well as the rest of the series.
All illustrations © Georgie Birkett
Source: review copy from publisher
I was really interested to read this post and the book sounds great! I’m particularly interested in good books for babies and very young children who are not yet into longer picture books, so this range will indeed be worth investigating. Thanks for sharing!
I felt that some of the earlier books in this series were better suited to school than home as they were a bit didactic and too clearly based (for my liking) on curriculum needs. I could see how they’d be useful in a school setting to extend a lesson, but they weren’t ones I enjoyed reading to the kids. so I’m curious as to whether this one feels different.
Loll, there are quite a few books like that around. Pip and Posy for example but I am sure you know all about them already.
Zoe, I have not seen the whole series, but I liked the ones I saw. It is a difficult age-group to cater for and I think they work well for that purpose. This one reads well aloud and I like it particularly because feelings are such a difficult concepts for toddlers to comprehend and this does a good job at making some sense of it. Plus I do like Georgie Birkett’s style – it is very toddler-friendly.