books Archives -

The Best 25 Adult Coloring Books For Every Personality

1Feb | 2016

posted by Paula

There are so many great adult coloring books out there right now. I have found some really comical ones recently while browsing Book sites and Amazon. I love how unique several are. The Swear Word Coloring Books are super hot right now. A friend pointed them out to me awhile ago and she and her cousins were ordering them off of a UK web site. I hadn’t even seen one like that until recently. Be warned these are definitely not for children!

Anyways, I love that there is even a Harry Potter Coloring Book available. So many oddball topics. Even a Game of Thrones Adult Coloring Book! Seems like there are adult coloring books for pretty much every personality these days! Here is a roundup of several I have found recently.

Do you use adult coloring books? Would you try one of these?

Swear word coloring book: Relaxation Series

Balance (Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders Volume 1)

Harry Potter Coloring Book

Adult Coloring Book: Animal Kingdom: Animals Out The Wazoo

Creative Haven Entangled Coloring Book

Creative Haven Creative Cats Coloring Book

Splendid Cities: Color Your Way to Calm

Doodle Dogs: Adult Coloring Books Featuring Over 30 Stress Relieving Dogs Designs

The Calm Coloring Book

Art Nouveau Animal Designs Coloring Book

Creative Haven Owls Coloring Book

Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Coloring Book

Mandala Coloring Book for Stress Relief

Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest & Coloring Book

Stress Relieving Animal Designs

Calm the F*ck Down: An Irreverent Adult Coloring Book

Archie McPhee’s The Existential Coloring Book

Faith in Color: An Adult Coloring Book

Creative Haven Steampunk Fashions Coloring Book

The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Mermaids, Fairies & Fantasy: Coloring Books for Grown-Ups, Adults

Adults Who Color Henna Art: An Adult Coloring Book Featuring Mandalas and Henna Inspired Flowers, Animals, Yoga Poses, and Paisley Patterns

Swear Word Adult Coloring Book

‘Color Therapy’ Coloring Books for Adult Relaxation DIY Stationery Cards Set with 32 Designs

Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity

This post contains affiliate links.

The Tiniest Tumbleweed Review and #Giveaway

2Dec | 2015

posted by Paula

Every so often you come across a cute little children’s book that demands a spot on the already overflowing bookshelves in your children’s collection of well loved reads. The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a sliver of a paperback picture book that will barely take up any physical space in your child’s bedroom, but will command a huge space in their hearts.

The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a super sweet fictional children’s picture book about a tumbleweed that is the smallest member of its family. Tumbleweed’s counterpart, who doesn’t meet Tumbleweed until the end of the book, is a wee little Sonoran Desert neighbour Baby Sparrow. We meet both independently as they are born at the start of the book. Each one grows unbeknownst to each other in their respective environments and they worry about being too small. Will they ever grow as big as their siblings?

This adorable picture book will demand to be read nightly and definitely should remain firmly established as a part of any child’s bookshelf. I read this one aloud to my tween and teen and they both agreed it is incredibly sweet. I will save The Tiniest Tumbleweed for either of the girls to take along when they babysit other people’s children, and to read to my niece and nephews, ages 2 to 7 (the sweet spot for this book is 3 to 8, or maybe 9, in my opinion).

The illustrations in The Tiniest Tumbleweed, by Alex Lopez are world class and memorable. Illustrations are important and even before this book arrived here I was pondering how on earth anyone could make a tumbleweed cute or cuddly or animated. Lopez manages that and more. He is a father of identical triplets residing in Silicon Valley, California. He helped to inform my important first impression of the book. These are honestly some of the cutest characters I have seen in a long time here. Lopez is super talented and he manages to convey emotion with his drawings of each character. The tumbleweed and house sparrow are each vulnerable due to their size. Their challenge is to find confidence and acceptance of their size and personality.

Kathy Peach provides a lovely story about resiliency, acceptance, and self esteem, growth and family. There’s a smart, tidy, little message in here also that speaks to the ‘Grow where you are planted’ kind of theme. There’s a hint of educational content about biodiversity which is a topic that runs throughout curriculums of school children in grade 5 and 6 here in Canada. There’s also a strong educational aspect to the book which is much more than I expected from this fictional children’s book. What’s even more wonderful than all of that is the fact that Peach manages to hide some of these lessons well so children won’t even realize they are learning about things like habitat and biodiversity.

First time author Kathy Peach moved from Tennessee to the Arizona area and followed her dream of pursuing a college degree in her retirement years. She opted to study early childhood and early childhood special education and taught for the Head Start program in Phoenix for a time. She combines her knowledge of child development and her experience teaching, rolling both into a substantial book that can also be used as a springboard for many crafts, lessons inside a classroom, or conversation starters at home. There are talking points and facts provided at end of the book, The Tiniest Tumbleweed. There’s a section about the house sparrow that could lead a child to want to research more and potentially prepare a project on the topic matter. There are fun facts and a curriculum guide included that can spark even more curiosity in the reader.

The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a really special story with remarkable illustrations and bonus extras that help give this book added value. The Tiniest Tumbleweed should be part of every library for every child between the ages of 4 to 9. I would say this book appeals to ages 4 to 8 but could be extended to a grade four child if they are still growing into their reading ability or if they have any learning challenges. While The Tiniest Tumbleweed has a great message for any child, it will also resonate strongly with kids who have visible or invisible differences. The Tiniest Tumbleweed is published by Little Five Star, a division of Five Star Publications and is out in 2016. It is 35 pages long. You can win a copy early here.

I received a copy of this book for purposes of review here. My opinion is all my own and 100 % truthful. I have one copy of The Tiniest Tumbleweed to gift to a lucky reader here. Follow the instructions below to win. Open to Canada and the US.

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Eclair Goes GeoCaching Review

1Dec | 2015

posted by Paula

Eclair Goes Geocaching is a cute book for any child over the age of six with a curious spirit.

Eclair is a seven year old girl who goes geocaching with her eccentric grandmother and learns a few things about treasures and the fun pastime. Eclair is a character who has appeared in two other instalments of this series.

Eclair’s Mom is sick and away currently and she and her sister are living with her Dad and grandma. Eclair’s grandmother suggests that she go geocaching one day and Eclair mishears several parts of the instructions and the description of the activity they are about to do for the first time ever. Eclair hears cache and thinks it will be a monetary treasure that is money or gold to help her Dad buy a house. Dad has been out of work and with Mom sick it’s clearly hard but this seven year old thinks geocaching might be the answer. She mishears a couple of other things like GPS and thinks that they mean something quirky, which is a totally childlike behaviour.

Out on the trails while hunting for the geocache Eclair’s imagination runs a bit amok and she tries to subdue a man she thinks is a Muggle, even though she doesn’t really know what a Muggle is. Eclair has a spunky side but she’s sensitive too and when she realizes the geocache isn’t what she thinks it is she’s very upset. But the outing ends well when she discovers a lost dog.

Eclair Goes Geocaching is an easy read and a starter chapter children’s book that would be perfect for about the age of seven.

This is Book Three in the Éclair Series
by Michelle Weidenbenner
Illustrated by Melody DuVal
R. Publishing, LLC

Excerpt From: Michelle Weidenbenner. “Eclair Goes Geocaching.” iBooks.

“ISBN 978-0-9863362-4-9 (ebook)
ISBN 978-0-9863362-5-6 (print)

Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair

6Sep | 2015

posted by Paula

When a new novel by Peggy Blair hits the shelves well that’s cause for celebration in my house. Peggy Blair has been one of my favourite Canadian authors since The Beggar’s Opera turned me back onto reading after a lengthy period of duty reads. Now Blair has written a third novel, Hungry Ghosts, fairly fast on the heels of The Poisoned Pawn. Happily for me because I don’t like to wait long between novels for her next instalment.

Peggy Blair’s first novel, The Beggar’s Opera, won me over with her rich cast of characters and intriguing magical realism of sorts. Her main character, Inspector Ricardo Ramirez sees ghosts after all and they hang around sometimes pointing him in the right direction, or triggering a clue of some sort that eventually sets him on a path towards solving these complex mysteries and murders. Blair’s novels rarely disappoint. They are well written and the characters are smart, but the part that I always fall in love with is the setting. With brilliant three dimensional characters playing out their lives against the rich dramatic territory of Cuba, it’s almost impossible not to be transported straight onto the streets of Havana beside the likes of Ramirez. One day I will take another vacation in Cuba and head there packing all of Blair’s novels so that I can fully appreciate the plot for how detailed and realistic it is. (I once did that with Hemingway in university because I enjoy reading authors where they worked at writing, or where they set their plots.)

Hungry Ghosts is quite simply excellent, and rivals The Beggar’s Opera as Blair’s best work. She has rapidly become one of my favourite Canadian authors, if not one of my favourite authors writing fiction at all. While investigating an art heist in Canada, Ramirez encounters his first ghost of this particular plot. In The Beggar’s Opera at first when Ramirez encountered ghosts he began to wonder if he was experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia and the psychological portion of that inner conflict made for some rich reading material. That continues somewhat in Poisoned Pawn, but by Hungry Ghosts Ramirez seems to understand their purpose a bit more than previously. He still struggles with plenty of inner psychological conflict but he also recognizes that each time While dead prostitutes turn up in Havana and our favourite detective is back on the case. This instalment in the Ramirez series of novels reminded me most of my experience reading The Beggar’s Opera. The plot is tight and the mystery remains pretty much a page turner until near the end. I did not guess the outcome of this one until it was unravelling in front of me.

I also enjoyed the rich First Nations subplot featuring Charlie Pike in Hungry Ghosts. Peggy Blair, an Ottawa lawyer, now author of three books in this series is a real Canadian treasure. She tackles on reservation politics believably and she also touches on the harm done by residential schools many years ago. Incest, violence, gangs, drugs and secrets are all plot points that jumpstart the back story and give further dimensions and insight into Charlie Pike’s character. That’s a really smart investment in character, and the mark of an author who really wears her characters so well that they become part of the reader’s daily life.

How lucky am I? This is my airplane read this week. @peggyblair hooked by page 1 every time. #books #reads #fun #summer #authors #love #mystery

A photo posted by Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr) on Jul 14, 2015 at 6:43am PDT

I can’t say enough about this author actually. There were moments when I got bogged down in my own work here and that meant I had to set this novel aside for a bit. But, Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair is such a great read it demands to be consumed and attended to. Even the title is witty and right. Blair is not overly lyrical or fanciful as a writer. She’s not self indulgent either. Her words, characters, plot and setting are extremely balanced and purposeful. In fact, sometimes reading a novel I am too easily tripped into remembering that the plot is a construct and find myself wondering how did the writer do this and what was the reasoning here and why did the author choose that word? Hazard of being a writer myself I suppose. But here, in this series I don’t do that. There is rarely a reason to question this plot. Blair continues to evolve as a writer and I wait impatiently for each new novel she writes.

I was sent a copy of this book for purposes of review. My opinion is my own.

Hungry Ghosts is by Peggy Blair, 2015, Simon and Schuster Canada, 394 pages, $19.99

My Yellow Balloon – on Grief and Kids

25Jun | 2015

posted by Paula

Anyone who has school aged children likely knows the pain of inevitably having to explain loss to them. Our own children suffered the loss of one of our cats, then Grandpa and Grandma, followed by a dear Uncle and their only remaining Grandma. And even since then we have had more pets pass away. My kids are now 11 and 13, but when they were younger and we knew that one Grandma was not likely to win her battle with cancer we started preparing the older child with books. Books about complex social issues can be a really great window into their lives and a jumping off point for discussions about subjects that they might not yet have words for. Charlotte’s Web and Robert Munsch’s The Lighthouse were favourites of ours back then.

This past month I was introduced to a new children’s picture book about grief. My Yellow Balloon takes an interesting topic and makes it extremely accessible to many by making a tangible object the item that’s lost. The yellow balloon becomes a metaphor for loss and grief. My Yellow Balloon by Tiffany Papageorge is the story of a child gifted a yellow balloon at the carnival. Joey and his balloon do everything together until one day the balloon escapes into the sky and flies away. The balloon raises the subject of grief, love and loss as Joey tries to cope with the loss of an object that was dear to him. Complex emotions arise, as they would in any child experiencing a loss, and the colour vanishes from Joey’s world as he processes sadness and anxiety and all the other big emotions. By using an object, and not a human being, the author gives a complex subject a bit of distance. I enjoyed that actually. It has the effect of gently easing into the topic of grief and death and loss.

My Yellow Balloon is written by author and speaker Tiffany Papageorge. It is beautifully illustrated by Erwin Madrid and has already won many awards. My Yellow Balloon is a great addition to any library. My Yellow Balloon by Minoan Moon publishing has bright and cheery illustrations and is really a keepsake kind of book. It sells for $18.99 US.

My Yellow Balloon

All The Bright Places Book Review

22Apr | 2015

posted by Paula

All The Bright Place review

Oh my heart. My sad broken heart. I have literally just finished All The Bright Places and although I will not spoil the ending for any of you dear readers I will say I had hoped with all my heart for something different in the end. Such a beautiful story, powerful words and meaningful substantial topics that I cannot blame the author Jennifer Niven for ending this book as she did. In fact it was probably the only ending possible for these two gorgeous three dimensional characters and yet, but my heart is broken. My heart is broken, in a good way, the way that reminds you try talent, rich precise characters and plot can do that, and should maybe sometimes grab you by the heart and squeeze hard until you feel all the feels of a gorgeous story, well told.

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Finch and Violent are high school students who know each other in passing, until one day when they meet on a ledge of the bell tower at their school. Who saves who from jumping that day? What happens next and how will their relationship evolve – these are the questions that drive the plot forward.

Finch, aka Theodore Freak, at school and home, is a moody quirky teen obsessed with death from the time he was small. Violet Markey is grieving the death of her sister, a built in best friend, who ran a successful web site with her and was one night killed in a car crash when the car slid on an icy patch of a bridge while heading home. Violet’s family is still quite broken, but they are survivors and troupers. Finch is intense and brooding and sometimes volatile. Violet is the victim of extenuating circumstances. She exists in a grief-stricken space of surviving sibling and she struggles to move on, paralyzed at school, alienating herself slowly from her friends due to the depth of her sadness, avoiding anything that she once did, and also excusing herself from any academic commitments at school. She is barely existing until that day when they connect on the bell tower and Finch finds her captivating and deeper than he ever imagined. Her begins to transfer some of his obsession to her.

In their last year of high school Violet is counting the days until graduation, but only because she is marking time on earth, not as a result of looking forward to being a graduate. Finch also is marking his time, calling it the time he has been Awake. He disappears from school often for weeks on end and then suddenly he reemerges slightly changed and returns to school. His time asleep is the time he spends lost in mental illness. He doesn’t have the terms that are accurate for his illness and barely starts to get a diagnosis toward the end of the book, but he is Awake when he connects with Violet Markey. At school an assignment comes up that involves travelling to far-flung and sometimes unsung quirky areas of Indiana to map them out. Finch volunteers Violet as his partner for the project and they begin their wanderings all over Indiana. Violet slowly begins to forget to count the days.

At first Violet finds Finch odd, but she also starts to recognize that there is some freedom in the odd behaviours and he seems to not care what anyone thinks of him. She tolerates their wanderings and their project for a bit until she actually starts to enjoy travelling with Finch and spending time with him. Until now she has been the popular girl with the sporty athletic boyfriend and the supportive parents. She is golden, at least until her sister dies suddenly, and then she is indulged as a victim longer than she should be. Their relationship creates conflict slightly because Violet’s old boyfriend is still sort of hanging around waiting for her to snap out of her grief and return to him. Ryan and Roamer and the group of athletes she once hung around with, don’t like Finch and they bully him often. Finch sometimes antagonizes the athletes until he gets a response that is violent and sometimes he reacts standing up for himself as well. But the depth of his reactions is sometimes scary. He is occasionally pulled off one of the bullies when he does retaliate and he can’t seem to stop himself.

Finch’s family seems mostly oblivious to his mental illness. His parents have separated and his Dad is an abusive ex hockey player who “replaced his family.” His Mom is a broken 40-ish woman who tries to pull a career back together in real estate but seems too lost in her own misery to see that Finch’s moodiness is not just normal adolescent behaviour. Finch is extreme and animated in every way. He has some savvy coping skills to avoid ever getting close to a therapist and he frequently erases the concerned telephone messages from professionals striving to help Finch. His Mom remains unaware anyone has concerns ever his mental state. Finch also has two sisters. They visit the Dad weekly and this provides a good deal more information about the context of the divorce and the poor father that he has been to Finch.

As Violet and Finch, two seemingly opposite souls discover all the bright places of Indiana together they begin to fall in love. Together they are combustible.

Jennifer Niven gives readers two incredibly great characters here in All The Bright Places. Finch as narrator is strong and deep and extremely rich material. Violet also takes her turns narrating and the narration switches in alternating chapters for most of the book. Violet is captured well here too. The plot is simple and not overly taxing. The characters take centre stage here.

All the Bright Places is such a heartbreakingly lovely story, with such real emotional tones and strong subject matter, that I really never found any weak spots. There is nothing I would change about this novel, not even the parts where my heart broke. The language is always matched to the tone of the characters and the dialogue is contemporary and real and true. Typically you read a novel, and maybe review it and find something that grates or annoys you about pacing or wording. Sometimes words are too sweet or language seems forced in young adult novels. I didn’t find that here. I honestly can’t find anything here that jars me, or made me cringe. All The Bright Places reminds me once again that some of the best writing happening today is occurring inside the Young Adults genre. Niven has written several other novels but this is her first young adult novel. Be warned this is not for kids under 12 years of age. I will keep it and let my daughter read this one, but not before she is ready. I have heard rumours the book has been optioned to become a motion picture. I will happily go see this movie when it is out.

Pick this one up. You will be heartbroken, but I promise you it will be worth it.

$$$$$ our of $$$$$. I wish I could give it more than 5 out of 5.

All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (January 6, 2015)
Language: English

30 Superb St. Patrick’s Day Books

1Mar | 2015

posted by Paula

St Patrick’s Day books

30 Superb Books for St. Patrick’s Day

Reading themed books to your kids can bring excitement towards reading. Sometimes it’s all they need to help them gain a love for reading. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your children curled up with a book. I have gathered a list of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day books for your family to devour. Please let us know what your favorite book is. I’m torn. But Two of my favorites are Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato and The Luckiest St. Patrick’s Day Ever. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Have you read any of these St Patrick’s Day books? Which ones jump out at you?

10 Soothing Books for Kids Who Are Scared

20Feb | 2015

posted by Paula

soothing Books for kids who are scared

10 Soothing Books for Kids Who Are Scared

Scared is a big emotion for anyone to feel. For a child being scared can feel a bit out of control and a bit worrisome. Helping them calm down and identify their emotions goes a very long way towards helping them feel safe. That’s where books come in. Books can help your child feel less alone. If a beloved character also feels the same thing they are feeling then they must be normal, right? Suddenly big emotions can seem a lot less frightening when they are identified and familiar.

Some of the 10 Soothing Books For Kids Who Are Scared may help you to guide your child through this difficult terrain.
When I Feel Scared
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark
Who Feels Scared?
What to Do When You’re Scared and Worried: A Guide for Kids
Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear?
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
When Lizzy Was Afraid Of Trying New Things
Don’t Be Afraid to Drop
Sofia the Snail
Let’s Talk About Feeling Afraid
This post contains affiliate links

The Girl On The Train Review

15Feb | 2015

posted by Paula

The Girl on The Train Review

The Girl on the Train, is by far the best book I have read so far this year. The buzz surrounding this one is worth it. The characters held my interest through the entire fictional thriller novel. Plus I never knew who to trust. Unreliable narrator is used very well here by first time novelist Paula Hawkins. The suspense was maintained through until the end of the book. If this is what Paula Hawkins is capable of in her debut novel, then I can’t wait to read more and I hope she writes fast.

Rachel, Megan and Anna are the three female narrators of the book. Rachel is an overweight alcoholic ex-wife who has lost her job and spends her days riding the commuter train because she hasn’t told her roommate that she has no job. She is, even to herself, slightly distasteful. She knows she wasn’t always so. As she rides the train getting further inebriated, she routinely finds herself imagining the lives of the people inside the houses along the various train stops. She makes up lives and names and she also passes by the home she once shared with Tom, which now houses his new family, wife Anna, and daughter Evie. One day, while riding the train as part of her daily charade she sees something in one of the houses along the train tracks. That sets in motion a bit of a quest.
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Rachel can’t seem to stop harassing her ex husband Tom and his new wife Anna. We learn that she leaves him messages often and his wife calls her telling her to stop. We also learn that Rachel one day stopped off at Anna and Tom’s house and in a drunken moment grabbed the baby Evie up and walked away with her. She is unstable and an unreliable narrator to say the least. Anna verges on calling police to report her stalker type behaviour.

Anna is a vain blonde new mother who casts herself as a marriage wrecker. She stole Tom from Rachel and now lives inside the former home that Rachel and Tom once shared. She is not the slightest bit regretful that she took Rachel’s husband for her own and she finds Rachel despicable and appalling. Anna is devoted to her tiny family, loves her husband Tom and gloats somewhat over the fact that she now has her perfect family – the one Rachel tried so hard to give Tom. Did I mention there is an infertility angle here? The infertility subplot is small but important in The Girl on the Train in that we are led to believe it is partly why the couple split up. It is apparently one more reason she drinks.

Megan is a disenchanted wife who works at an art gallery and is a chronic cheater. One day Rachel witnesses Megan embracing someone else inside the home she shares with Scott. Soon thereafter Megan goes missing. There have been many parallels and comparisons to Gone Girl, but I feel the comparisons are overstated actually. Both novels are thrillers and both revolve around a main character that goes missing. Both are page turners too. But the plots are quite different.

Megan eventually turns up dead and the subsequent investigation is one that Rachel somehow insinuates herself in quickly. She, however, is also unreliable because she is a drunk. She continues to drink for most of the book erasing her memories of most things and events by getting sloppy drunk every day. After Megan vanishes Rachel wants to remember the events that transpired the night Megan went missing. She vaguely recalls getting off the train that evening and seeing something. She can’t visualize details though.

Is Megan really dead? Did she just walk away bored with her husband Scott and unable to handle his emotionally controlling temperament. Oh yes and I forgot to mention that Megan at one point also was a nanny for Tom and Anna because they live close by. Megan has throughout the plot been keeping her own secrets. It seems possible she might just have walked away. Who was motivated enough to kill Megan? Is she dead? What is the truth about Scott? Is he a killer? Is Megan’s psychiatrist a killer? Who was sleeping with whom?

The Girl on The Train is more than worth the read. It’s my favourite recent book of all the ones I have read lately. The Girl on The Train is published by Double Day and was released late in 2014 in paperback.

Ten Books for Kids Who Are Feeling Sad

12Feb | 2015

posted by Paula

Books for kids who are feeling sad

10 Simple Kids’ Books About Feeling Sad

Emotions can be so big for little people. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to handle them. Sometimes it’s hard to know what emotion they are experiencing, or what the word is for that feeling. When kids are small a huge part of the job of learning emotional regulation centres on learning a vocabulary for the emotions. That’s where books can come in handy. Reading all about some animal character experiencing fear and sadness because Mommy went to work or Dad is in the hospital, can help.

When my kids were small I loved these types of educational emotional intelligence books. They are sometimes also instrumental in helping children understand empathy. When they are small that’s a great way to nurture compassion. Reading a long with your child as you label the emotions together and decide what is happening, can help him or her start to feel for the main character. You might add: How do you think Bear is feeling now that Mama Bear is away? They might struggle for a few words but typically will have no problem seeing and maybe even feeling what that small bear is experiencing. Growing and learning through books also means children get good at taking the lessons learned and apply them to real life experiences. Of course with all things, when kids are small, the key is repetition.

Here are ten simple books about feeling sad for kids. This post contains affiliate links.

The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Be Sad

Princess Stella Gets Sad

I’m Not Happy: A Book About Feeling Sad

Sad Isn’t Bad

Are You Sad, Little Bear?

Everyone Feels Sad Sometimes