Emma Lou the Yorkie Poo: Alphabet, Feelings and Friends

An excellent designed book with very colourful images, characters and rhyming text. This book travels from A to Z covering every emotion or feeling not only a young person can feel but anyone can. Each emotion is covered by a different character which are mainly animals and when the person sees that relevant character on TV or in real life they will associate it with that feeling. A genius way of getting children to not only talk about their emotions but recognising them in others. For example, in a field near where I live there are a group of Llamas and when I see them it reminds me of love as depicted in the book. As I read through the book even though it is aimed at the younger generation it reminded me of how I am dealing with my own children (even though they are grown up). A great book which should be read by all ages and should be in every young children’s library, as in this testing times of not being able to have a normal life and interaction with others it will help them understand and hopefully get them to talk about their emotions. The book focuses on the positive side of emotions and is very strong in relaying the fact it is ok to feel sad and lonely at times but by talking about it all those worries will go away. What I really liked was the fact that the characters and animals can be related to which will help the person talk about it in a third person, for example, I feel like Quincy the Quail today which helps the person they are talking to understand them better. Praise for excellent rhyming text, imaginative characters and colourful images which all portray a positive vibe about the whole range of emotions.

Updated review!!! I now have a physical, paperback copy and wow, let me tell you what a difference that makes! It’s almost like reading an entirely different book! I had to come back and update my review to better reflect the book! Emma Lou the Yorkie Poo: Alphabet, Feelings and Friends is 28 pages (full pages). Each page contains a letter of the alphabet, a friend who’s name and animal start with that letter, AND, what I feel is an added bonus, is a feeling that starts with that letter (I will give a pass for X, but hey, it was quite creative!) Children books like this are right up my alley! The creativity is superb! It rhymes (one of my favorite things) and, on top of that, the feelings are are shared with physical and physiological feelings AND, again, an added bonus; a way to help someone with those feelings. If you are angry, breathing in and out slowly will help you feel peaceful; if you need a pick me up, hum a merry tune; breathing slowly and dreaming of you and me can help you when you are frightened. Each page shares different emotions – some that are not the common happy, mad, or sad. We are talking big emotions, what those emotions are, how to handle the emotion. I don’t know many kids (myself included) that would sit down and read through this entire book – alone or with a parent – but that is okay! I think this would be a great book to read with your child (or have them read alone) a page or two each day. I also feel like this is a great book to keep on hand, easily accessible, for your non-verbal children or children just learning and exploring their feelings. When they are feeling a certain way, they can reference this book to show someone how they are feeling and if it is anger, fear, nervous, or something else; they can practice what is in the book to help relieve those not so good feelings (or practice one of the good feelings!) It really is such a cute book for older children, but can really be a useful tool for younger kids or kids with special needs. (I specifically think of my little elementary aged friend who has Autism. He has trouble with feelings and cannot always verbalize. I feel like this book would be perfect for him and his parents! I will definitely be gifting them a copy!)

Emma Lou the Yorkie Poo: Alphabet, Friends, and Feelings by Kim Larkins helped start and great discussion with my sons. Like Emma Lou I have anxiety, unfortunately so does one of my sons. This book opened the discussion not only for my son with anxiety but the other two as well. I love finding new books to share with my boys and this had the bonus of not just being fun but gave a few life lessons as well. I think we will go find the other Emma Lou book to read now.