This book is so cute! I love that it starts with an overview of what emotions are. I also loved that it gives a different emotion for every letter of the alphabet! The picture were nice too...though my 2 year old thought the lion on the letter A was a bit scary.
These are poems about the different emotions. From a parent/teacher standpoint, I liked that they tell the emotion, give a small physical description of what the emotion might feel like, and then give you an idea of how to pass through the emotion. That being said, the poems are long. My 2 year old could sit through the reading of a poem, but didn’t have the stamina to read the entire book all at once. I could see a teacher focusing on 2-3 poems a day and using them to make text to self connections with students. This would be an excellent book for that!
Overall, I liked this book. I would use this with my classroom of young children, and even with my child when she was a little older!

The educator in me LOVED this adorable book; already thinking of so many different ways to facilitate conversation with kids/young readers!
A lovely little alphabet book with gorgeous, vibrant illustrations and simple rhyming poems describing different emotions. I think this book would be very resourceful for the social-emotional learning of children whether at home, at school, or anywhere else. (would be great as a reference book for students to identify their own emotions)

The verses of An Emotional Menagerie, as well as the general idea and themes, are highly reminiscent of the gently moralizing childen's poem of the Victorian age, like A Children's Garden of Verses, and brought me back to my own childhood (no, not in the Victorian era, I'm not actually that old). Part of this feeling comes from the fact that the vocabulary level seems pretty high for the overall age group, but it might be the kind of book a child can grow into. The concept is fun and clever - emotions (twenty-six of them, one for each letter of the alphabet) rendered as animals, with sing-song verses that explore and explain each. The emotion-to-animal choices are spot-on, such as boredom as a jellyfish that flops around limply on a beach and can sting you but needs to get washed away back into the sea; embarrassment as a pufferfish, swollen and prickly and sticking out like a sore thumb; uncertainty as a chameleon torn between different color choices.

I appreciate the fact that 'negative' emotions aren't, as it were, penalized; the reader isn't told not to feel certain feelings, but given the emotional literacy to understand where these emotions come from, and why, and how to handle them (for example, noting that guilt, a hangdog-faced dog, can in small doses help us to do better next time; or that jealousy, a green serpent, is natural but rather than coveting the things others have, one can use it "as a guide to plan the life you'd like to lead, the path you hope to find").

Last but not least, the art is sharp and bright and evocative, the animals clearly expressing their respective emotions - a melancholy hippo wallowing in the mud, a panicking chicken running around in a frenzy of feathers, or a tranquil cow lounging in a flower-dotted field.

Overall, An Emotional Menagerie is a thoughtful and engaging collection of images and poems to help young readers understand and handle their own emotions, through a clever concept, gentle verse, and imaginative illustrations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Duckworth Books/The School of Life for the advance review copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.

An Emotional Menagerie is a children's book that presents emotions which can often be overwhelming to our kiddos in a way that is accessible, fun, and rewarding for anyone who is reading!

I expected this book to be a simple introduction to basic feelings (IE happy/sad etc.), and I got that and SO much more. Not only are these emotions presented alphabetically and in a relatable way, using fun animal imagery, every emotion is discussed in a manner to ensure understanding . Probably most surprising, a technique for how to handle each emotion constructively is given.

The pages are richly colored and fun to look at (who doesn't love a vibrant whale representation of loneliness or cute playful monkeys representing the line between being naughty or nice?!) Even as a 31 year old woman I found great enjoyment at each page turn, and am planning on purchasing this book for a few of my close friends.

Highly recommended, An Emotional Menagerie is a lively and quick witted presentation of emotional concepts in a prose that is upbeat. The ability of the author to teach on multiple levels (alphabet, emotional recognition, vocabulary etc.) in such a fun and accessible way makes this an easy buy, and will ensure that this book becomes a quick favorite for all in the family.

A great book for older children to help unravel emotions and feelings. It’s great to give them a label for what they might be feeling. Books like these are so important as a first step in safeguarding mental health. Along with relevant vocabulary and descriptions of emotional states, the colors and illustrations are perfect.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

Can we please get this book into every single classroom? It is a phenomenal exploration into 26 different emotions and how they might make you feel. I love the illustrations, the vocabulary, and they rhythmic nature of the text. I cannot wait to add a copy to my classroom library and gift this to other teachers that I know.