The other day when I was browsing at books at WalMart I spotted a book that I had wanted to read to the daycare, but had forgotten about. The price was a little high for me to purchase at the moment, but thankfully my oldest daughter has a copy at her daycare....so I borrowed it from her.

Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day was a big hit with our 2 and 3 year olds! They loved telling me what the moods looked like to them and surprisingly they read the faces very well. They could tell the sad, silly, angry, quiet, grumpy and mean looks on the main characters face without much prodding from me.

The Story & Illustrations

Our story starts out with the main character, a cute little red headed girl, who remains nameless, saying that today she feels silly. The story is done in rhythmic fashion that allows the reader to become as involved as the children are.

Today I feel silly
Mom says it's the heat.
I put rouge on the cat
and gloves on my feet.
I ate noodles for breakfast
and pancakes at night.
I dressed like a star
and was quite a sight.

The wonderful watercolor illustrations on this page show the little girl all dolled up in a flowing green gown with high heels and sunglasses. Near her is a basket full of combs and brushes and a flashlight shining brightly on this little 'star'. Included in most of the pages is a long striped gray cat, who you can tell is this little girls friend.

Her mood changes from bad and grumpy to mean, no matter what happens things just don't seem to be going right. Our little curly red haired girl is sitting with her arms crossed on her bed and you can just imagine the feelings that she is having. Poor kitty is sitting holding an empty water bowl, seems her mood has an affect on him too!

One of my favorite pages is when our main character is angry! The page is very red and her face is all clenched as are her hands. This is a very descriptive page and one that the children understood immediately.

Today I am angry. You'd better stay clear.
My face is all pinched and red ear to ear.
My friends had a play date. They left me out.
My feelings are hurt. I want to shout!

It isn't long though before she is joyful and her mood is first rate. Things are going well with her friend and the sun is so bright. She ran in a relay and the drawings show just how hard she tried. With a big grin on her face she is happy as can be, while her joy is shown in the illustrations with the pages bright green and very colorful.

As you are reading this book, it suddenly comes to a page that you have to turn sideways to read. I liked this aspect of the book, never being predictable and always giving us the unexpected. It adds a different dimension and of course helps to hold the children's attention too! On this page the little girl is on a swing with her hands gripping the chains that go up to the top of page where they are held on the bar of the swingset. Behind her are other children playing on swings and slides. The interesting signs behind them say such things as: Hyperactive Straight-A-Way with an arrow pointing to the park. There are also Baby Swing, Scary Slide and Mood Swing. While these aren't signs that a child would grin about, it certainly gave this Gramma a chuckle. :0)

Other moods that our little red haired girl go through are confused, quiet, excited, cranky, lonely, discouraged, frustrated, happy and sad. One of the wonderful things about this book is how her mood changes on each page, and yet never is she told that her mood is good or bad to have. Her feelings are her feelings and that is all that they are and whatever she is feeling inside is okay.

My Feelings

The text in this marvelous book is wonderful and helpful to children and adults alike. Reminding ourselves that moods are neither good or bad is a great side benefit that the adult gets when reading this book to children. The children of course also greatly benefit from the message that however they feel they are loved and are not wrong for feeling that way. That the adults in their life will support and try to help them through whatever they are feeling. I think this book also points out, very well, that it doesn't have to be anything specific that brings on a feeling, just that feelings are, and that they can change rapidly.

The illustrations are also fantastic! They are bright and colorful and full of small details that are discovered through each reading. The illustrator did a magnificent job of displaying the different moods very creatively and having that mood be not only the little girl's face, but also often times on the people around her and even on the cats face too! The simple lines of the drawings are filled in with an explosion of colors and creativity.

The children asked me to read this book over and over again to them...my best recommendation for any children's book. I think what I loved about it too, was that I didn't feel tired of reading it, and enjoyed each reading as well.


Nuts & Bolts

Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day was written by actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis. I was surprised that a search of Ms. Curtis's books provided 23 titles. I knew she had written several books, but was unaware that it was this many. Included in her writings are: Tell Me About the Night I Was Born, Where Do Balloons Go?, I'm Going To Like Me. I am anxious to reserve copies of some these titles from our library.

The wonderful illustrations were done by Laura Cornell. She also did the illustrations in Ms. Curtis's books Tell Me About the Night I Was Born and I'm Going to Like Me. They are a wonderful combination of author and illustrator, so I'm sure that these other books will be as fulfilling to read to the daycare.

This 32 page book was published by Joanna Cotler Books An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers in 1998.

I would recommend this book for children over 2 years old and don't feel that there is really an upward limit. I found myself enjoying it as much as the children.

The jacket price on this hardback book is $15.95 but it can be purchased online for as little as $6.95 through Amazon.com. This book is also available in a trade paper cover and is available on cassette. I feel having the cassette to go along with the book would make this an even more exciting reading adventure.









Recommended: Yes