“If you Cry like a Fountain” is an odd and funny picture book focusing on a very sad, crying worm. In the book, the worm is very sad and the narrator expresses all of the different ways in which tears can be used. These ways include things like filling a pot to boil pasta in, helping things grow, shining floors and more ways in which tears can be “useful”.

I feel like the book may possibly cheer up a crying child if you were to pull it out at that exact time, but I feel like it misses its mark overall.

In my opinion, tears don’t always have to be used for something to be useful, but are an expression of sadness that helps us relieve grief. Crying “better” as expressed in the book, is a weird concept. The book also expresses that there is no use in crying, which I don’t believe.

For that reason, I couldn’t recommend this to my classes, even though I found the illustrations very endearing and well done.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGelley for an advanced copy of the book for my honest review.

A whimsically drawn and simply written book that kids will be able to follow. Help kids open up to talking about their emotions are realizing that it is ok to cry; not something to be ashamed of. The author does a great job of finding silly ways to redirect and put a more positive spin on feeling emotionally overwhelmed. The final message seems to be a reminder to remember the good things and try to enjoy the moment and relax when you can.

As a Kindergarten teacher I had high hopes for this book but feel it misses the mark. On a practical level, it would be a stretch trying to fit this into an actual lesson around social emotional learning. The second half some brought humor to the useful aspects crying though. The illustrations were wonderful throughout the story. Ultimately, it's a sweet story to read and enjoyable to look at.., it just lacked in the plot for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, and Tundra Books for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book.

I was hoping for more with this picture book. There was no true plot; it was simply a description of things that could be done with large amounts of tears. I was really hoping for the book to include a little bit of social-emotional learning but it did not. Some of the situations were creative. The drawings were very childlike. Unfortunately this is not a book I would choose to read again.

Starting this book, I thought it would be about crying and a wholesome "it's okay to feel and it's okay to cry,' and I didn't get that. The closest was that everybody cries, even kings, superheroes, and rocks. The author had a lot of creative ways to use tears and explain why things cry like clouds to rain on plants and frogs so they don't explode, and that was all cute, but it fell a little short for me because we never got into why to cry, but just that you can. There was no warming "it'll be alright" feeling at the end, and it seemed to lack a bit of substance to make this a real connective story to youth. It's not bad, but I can't see myself recommending this to a parent who has a child who cries a lot.

Thank you NetGalley and TundraBooks for the ARC. I will look into this author and read some other materials to see if they hit the mark for me.

This illustrated book of uses for all those tears was strangely delightful.

Tears are common. Growing up and having lots of big emotions can mean you have a lot of tears. The author shows lots of different peculiar ways you could use these tears, including boiling pasta in them (because you won't even have to season the water).

While I enjoyed all the absurd ways that tears became "useful", it didn't have the impact I was hoping for.

Thank you NetGalley. My kindergartner loves this story. We are at the age where we are talking more and more about our emotions. The story centered around crying but also some humor. She thought tiding your tears to brush your teeth was genius. Very cute and timely for kids today.

The text and illustrations flow well together in this picture book, and while the intentions of the author are good, crying is good/okay, it felt like they were trying to force too much into the story. At first, I got the impression that the narrator didn't want the worm to cry and as the story progressed then it became silly ways to cry.

A good message but fell short of the social emotional mark.

“If You Cry Like a Fountain” has interesting & fun illustrations, however, I felt the purpose / message was confusing. Written slightly different, in a way the books target audience can easily comprehend, may benefit the overall impact it would have on the reader / listener.

A sincere thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, and Tundra Books for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book and leave my review voluntarily.

What a lovely and bright story about our emotions. With adorable illustrations and characters to personify our
feelings when we are sad. This a cute read for adults and youngsters alike. A great picture book I would adopt into my classroom for sure.

In If You Cry like a Fountain, the author and illustrator Noemi Vola highlights the practical benefits of crying with quirky and surprisingly fun examples, like crying around lunchtime so we can use our salty tears to boil pasta. Yeah, you can laugh? I did too! And, as a big crier myself (for real, I even have a t-shirt saying 'I'm pretty cool, but I cry a lot'), I found this picture book for early readers genuinely delightful.

The book begins with a sad and tearful worm and an unseen narrator, who shares various ways to 'cry better'. The ideas are sometimes silly but always creative, and I smiled a lot while reading. The colourful illustrations are full of humour and greatly enrich the message. Everyone cries, and that's okay.

The book will be a good-hearted resource for discussing feelings and emotions and help develop young kids' emotional self-regulation. And I do know it would have to help me when I was a kid. The only downside is that it's too short. The story could be better told with a few more pages. For example, in the beginning, I felt like crying wasn't okay, in the 'keep your chin up' way, which seems dissonant with the themes of the rest of the book. Besides that, I would love it if, in the future, there's a Portuguese version so I can buy that for my younger cousins ​​and goddaughter.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book. While I think this book had the best of intentions, I think it falls short of its goal in its current state. The beginning of the book could be confusing to an early reader. I love that this is a book meant to bring awareness to mental health to younger ages, but I have read other books that have been more successful. I think there is potential and the illustrations that are in this iteration of the book are very well done. However, the message of the book and the way that is expressed, particularly to young readers who may have limited familiarity and understanding of this topic, could be improved and made clearer.

Received a copy of this book through NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada.

What an adorable read about emotional intelligence. This is a fun, quirky book about feelings I could see my class absolutely loving. I will absolutely be purchasing a copy for my classroom.

I also really enjoyed the art work. So adorable!

This is a funny picture book about the benefits of crying with cute illustrations on every page. I liked the illustrations because they remind me of something that a young kiddo would draw when telling their own story.
I go back and forth in my opinion of the book finding there to be points where the story is showing young children that it is ok to cry and that it is a universal language. However, there were also many times throughout the story where I felt like the message wasn’t clear or productive for children. Is it ok to cry? What are the real benefits to crying, are these it?
I think the general idea of showing kiddos that crying is not only ok but also natural and serves an important emotional and physical purpose is fantastic. I was hoping for more of the practical purposes wrapped into a whimsical children’s storyline.

Fun illustrations and a funny storyline to highlight the benefits of crying in a kid friendly way.

None of these benefits are the traditional benefits but include silly thing like washing your pet, making pasta, cleaning your floor, preventing frog explosions, etc.

This was a weird and wacky book about crying. It may just make you laugh (when you are feeling sad) as you read about all of the ways your crying could be productive.

Oh my goodness! This may be one of my favorite picture books ever. It acknowledges that crying is totally normal and everyone cries (even Spiderman & rocks), but also is incredibly silly and could cheer anyone up. Definitely recommend this one and will be getting my own copy as soon as it comes out.

The artwork in this picture book is very engaging and fun, but the content I'm not so sure of.

It's unclear to me the point about tears that we are trying to get across: Are we saying that tears are only ok if they are productive? That tears are not ok just in and of themselves?

I could be thinking on it too much and it's just supposed to be a lighthearted look at tears to help someone feel less shame around the act of crying?

If the author did a quick note at the beginning of the book that told of the inspiration for the book, I think it would have really helped me read the book through the correct lens. That would have allowed me to enjoy the read, instead of trying to figure out the truth about tears that was being conveyed.

If You Cry like a Fountain is a funny and creative picture book. It's geared towards older students who can appreciate the humor. It's a good distraction picture book that can help kids think of something funny when they feel like crying and feel better in the process.

If You Cry like a Fountain
by Noemi Vola was a delightful book. I enjoyed the innovative usage of tears and benefits of crying.
Thanks NetGalley for the ALC.