In a Nutshell: A brilliant exploration of the “magical science of feelings”, highlighting some important information and action strategies to handle emotions in an easy-to-understand manner. Loved the content as well as the approach. Much recommended!

Feelings are often viewed as ‘abstract’ concepts. Kids know about common feelings, but they do not realise how these are directed within our bodies, originating from our brains but affecting our entire self. Even some adults might be surprised to discover just how much physiology is involved in our emotions.

This book seeks to bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete. It explains, in as simple a way as possible, how various components within the brain function during various emotions. The feelings tackled by the book aren’t just common ones such as happiness or worry, but also some complex ones such as being overwhelmed.

It is impossible to not think of the movie ‘Inside Out’ while reading this book. (It is one of my favourite animated movies, so no complaints.) Just as ‘Inside Out’ highlighted the individuality of feelings, this book depicts how each feelings triggers a specific response in our mind and body.

What makes this book extra special is that it elaborates on our complex neurological system in a style that children will find easy to understand. Using four comical characters - Amy, Hippo, Neo, Lim, who represent the amygdala, the hippocampus, the neocortex, and the limbic system respectively – the book depicts the role these four play every time we experience an emotion or its reaction, such as butterflies in the tummy or reddened cheeks or tears in our eyes. I love the idea of having cartoonish characters to depict brain functionality and complex scientific terms because it’s such an easy way of making tougher concepts accessible to little ones.

The tagline of this book states: ‘Train your brain to quiet anger, soothe sadness, calm worry, share joy.’ The content succeeds in meeting this claim, offering practical strategies for each of these points. Each of the strategies is accompanied by an activity that kids can do at home. The activity involves either a simple exercise or make-at-home creations. The latter might end up getting messy and a bit wasteful, so I wasn’t a big fan of these. This is the only negative feedback I have about the book. Then again, there are many parents who encourage children towards messy crafts as well, so this feedback won’t be universally valid.

The book has some big scientific words as they can’t be avoided in such a topic, but they whole thing is so beautifully simplified that children won’t be bothered by the technical terms.

There is a special note for parents at the end of the book. I’d encourage adults to read this first, before sharing the book with children.
The illustrations complement the content perfectly. The cartoonish graphics help in making the book feel more accessible than technical. I love how the colour of the pages matched the emotions they spoke about.

All in all, this is an excellent scientific book that takes boring or complicated details about the role of our brain and nervous system in directing our emotions, and offers practical advice on how to boost positive emotions and handle negative ones.

Strongly recommended. The official target age is 5 to 8 years, but I think this would also work wonderfully for tweens. It would be a great fit in homes, classroom libraries as well as counselling centres.

4.75 stars.

My thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Magical Science of Feelings”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This book should be your number one gift to parents, teachers and professionals, new and seasoned. Absolutely love how the chemistry of science is explained and made tangible and more comprehensible with little scientific activities and potions for the children. Added to my list of favorites-gift-list. Imagine a world where children already became conciously aware of their emotions, imagine humanity evolving like this.

We really enjoyed the presentation of this book. Through the use of characters (like in Inside Out), there is a conductor of 'feelings' who organises the messenger hormones to create our emotions and then explains what happens in our heads when we feel happy, sad, mad, worried or overwhelmed and then suggests activities to do when we experience each one.

It allows grown ups to help little ones to navigate their emotions and their emotional response to the emotions of others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is such a good little book for kids exploring their feelings and learning how to manage them. I liked the cute names for the brain's messengers and child friendly explanations for them and the happy hormones. The activities such as letter to Lim and the emotional regulation exercises like the body scan and family joy jar are great for helping kids feel in control and manage their own emotions.

Favourite Quote:
"Feelings can seem magical, can’t they?"

A very cool book that illustrates feelings, talks about how to express them and makes the understanding of them more tangible and externalised. Suitable for both children and adults and a great book for families, and neurodiverse individiuals.

Feelings can be so confusing. I love this simple approach that had wonderful explanations and images. This book will lead to excellent discussion of when kids have experienced each feeling. I also like that they’re are activities to do that relate to every feeling- including something science related!

A little guide for the big feelings of small or old people! I love how it gives a scientific explanation of how our brains work and what each part of our brain does concerning our emotions. Also, I loved all the activities that you can do with your children to help them move and overcome their. difficult emotions like sadness and anger.

Nice book for a bit older kids or adults that still have no idea how the whole system works.

I recommend it to every parent with small or teen kids.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author of my ARC.

I enjoyed this book. It was both entertaining while teaching the science of emotions in an easy-to-understand language. Even adults can learn something from this.
It simplifies the scientific process behind how emotions are created/experienced by giving the different actors involved - hippocampus, amygdala etc - different personalities.
I also appreciated the little tips throughout the book about how to manage one's emotions. Like the suggestion about stomping your feet into your ground, when you are mad! I might actually try that next time I am feeling agitated.
Illustrations were fine - not my taste, but nothing negative to say about them. They were interesting enough.
My only real critique is the potion recipes in the book. I understand the idea behind them and can see the logic of creating them with young children in order to make the topic more tangible and engage the tactile sense. But I also see it as a waste of ressources to create these potions. But then again, arts and crafts are important for kids... I don't know. I guess I'm torn on that one.

This book is the perfect combination of the movie “Inside Out” and beloved books and TV Shows “The Magic School Bus”
The author does a fantastic job writing this specifically for kids, using their verbiage and examples they experience in day to day life. They were a genius and gave the parts of our brain little nicknames which made it easier for the kiddos to grasp. The nicknames paired with the captivating illustrations leaves you and your child ready to take on the big feelings.

This book would be a phenomenal resource for quick SEL lessons for teachers or homeschool families. This book something every parent should go through with their children with the opportunity for the kiddos as well as the grown ups to learn from.

*I received this book as an ARC but had the opportunity to truthfully and critically rate this book with my own opinions.

I was impressed while reading this book. Explaining the science behind the emotions (sadness, happiness, madness, worry, overwhelm) in a child-friendly manner it takes a lot of talent.
The book opens with what your body is telling you about what’s feeling inside and continues with an illustrative exposition of how brain deals with feelings.
Each feeling is unveiled starting with definition, symptoms, causes and solutions throughout beautiful illustrations.
This book can be used at home and in classroom as well!

I was so impressed with this book that I have already placed an order for it's release.

This book introduces the brain and it's different functions through four fun characters. The book gives hints and tips for coping with emotions and what happens when it all becomes too much.

I am going to use this as a resource in my bag as I think it's one that every primary school and parent could benefit from!

Thank you NetGalley for enabling me to read an advance copy.

This was very informative in a very easy way for understanding for kids.

Being a doctor, I knew how everything works but even then I wouldn't be able to make someone understand how it goes. This book is definitely going to help there.

It will be very useful for parents and teachers to make kids understand how feelings are generated in our brains.

Thank you Netgalley, storey publishing and Jen daily for the wonderful ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This is a beautifully illustrated book on various aspects of different feelings. With each feeling comes a fun activity for children to do, It is the perfect book to introduce students to the science behind our feelings.

Big brain nerd here! I loved this book! I tested it out with my 5 year old at home and can’t wait to use it with my kinders! Well done!

Great tool for helping little ones understand how emotions and feeling are caused and affect our bodies. My son loved this

This is a wonderful book that gets into the heart of how emotions work. The book does not shy away from using real scientific words and languages. It also uses a 70’s style art to help illustrate what’s going on. It all works together quite well to make not only an educational book but entertaining one as well.

ARC reader for NetGalley

The perfect companion to teach your littles how their emotions work, what parts of their brain they come from and why along with some useful tip on controlling them. Chock full of information and fun experiments to do with your littles.

Great to share with children and adults alike to help make sense of their feelings and emotions. Fantastic for any school ELSA to use in sessions. I will be buying it for my school.

A wonderful way to teach children emotions and how they work in our body. Breaking it down based on science and how our brain sends different impulses out is an amazing way to get a grip on those emotions and regulate them. The illustrations were adorable but my favorite part was the activities.

This books had several activists throughout that were designed to help children regulate their emotions, or provide an outlet for them. Breaking it down in a scientific way shows them that they can conquer it and they are not subject to stay in that emotion forever. I can’t wait to try out some of the activities with my children.

This SEL gem of a picture book should be in every library and classroom. It combines descriptions of emotions with how to deal with them and even includes activities throughout the book to learn more about and practice emotional regulation.