Sometimes I Feel Like a Mouse: A Book About Feelings - Hardcover

Modesitt, Jeanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590448358 ISBN 13: 9780590448352

Publisher: Scholastic, 1992

Synopsis

A look at the different expressions of animals encourages young readers to act out the antics of the creatures depicted in evocative illustrations.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-- Everything about this book is soft and fuzzy--its approach, its focus, and its execution. In an attempt to introduce the wide range of human emotion in a nonjudgmental way, an everychild narrator of indistinct gender describes a dozen positive and negative feelings that children routinely experience and juxtaposes them with counterparts from the animal kingdom. "Sometimes I feel like a horse galloping BRAVE." Herein lies the problem. The similies offered make it sound as though a wolf cries because it's SAD, a hiding mouse is SHY, and soaring eagles are PROUD. The simple repetitive text, therefore, comes off as cliched rather than informed, and the warm, glowing acrylics, while attractive, are more dreamlike than representational. I'm O.K., you're O.K. this book's sentiments are O.K. However, Aliki's Feelings (Greenwillow, 1984) presents a more complete, crystal-clear, and commanding overview of the subject. --Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

The latest offering from the creators of Night Call and Vegetable Soup seems more like a pep talk on self-esteem ("There is no such thing as a right or wrong feeling") than a fully realized picture book. There is no linear narrative, and readers don't really know who "I" is. Each feeling (shy, bold, sad, happy) is correlated with that of an animal, as a nameless boy in overalls expresses himself. Spowart's typically shadowy, vague illustrations seem a bit dour here, though properly moody and unthreatening. At the back of the book all the feelings are shown rebus-style, allowing youngsters to see how far they have traveled emotionally. Though the book will strike some as rather artificial in both concept and execution, it may prove a useful part of early psychological explorations. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0590448358
• ISBN 13: 9780590448352
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Spowart Robin