I received a digital ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review.

I have such mixed feelings about this book! Initially, I was excited to see a picture book which represents the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of therapy. I am by no means an expert, but an understanding of the basics of this approach to psychology has helped me in my own life, and I think there are concepts within it, particularly how to recognize being emotionally "identified with a part," that would be generally very beneficial if more people were aware of them.

But ugh, right off the bat, why do so many children's books have such laborious, stilted rhyming? Meter is important, ya'll. So often in a rhyming picture book there's kind of a flow and then they just jam in like five extra syllables in the last line to get a rhyming phrase to work, and I'm like ???

On the positive side, the art in this is a total slam dunk. Rich, layered, evocative of the intense emotions associated with each member of the family system, and how they manifest--the art, plus the general existence of a book about this subject oriented towards younger readers, does make it somewhat worthwhile.

Still, I think if you were an adult previously unfamiliar with IFS, you would come away from this with a rudimentary understanding of the intention, but I think some parts are not explained enough, and some phrases that I understood because I have context might be confusing for those without it.

Kind of a bummer, this is such a good concept, I just wish it was a little more elegantly conveyed.