Slightly mixed feelings about this one!

This is a quirky picture book with no story. Every page contains a line or two about “what feelings do when no one's looking.” For instance,
👉 “Anger Explodes”;
👉 “Pride sits tall in a tower at the summit of a crystal mountain”;
👉 “Happiness zips into the air in a soap bubble”.
The line-up includes not just feelings but also abstract concepts such as friendship, curiosity, and hospitality.

While the idea of the book, which was originally published in Polish is brilliant, the implementation is a bit complicated, considering its target age group of 3-7 years. Many of the thoughts are brilliant but others are bizarre. The feelings of the feelings (#NotATypo!) are quite surreal at times, and I am not sure how far the younger age group will comprehend the depth of the words. This book will work as a conversation starter in homes or schools, not as an independent reading resource.

The illustrations are intricate but quite plain at least to my eyes. The creatures representing the emotions are really cute, but the sketches are coloured in dull hues. I prefer children’s books to have bright colourful sketches that pop out from the page, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the book in the child’s eyes. This one is very lacklustre in comparison.

I’m getting a feeling that adults will be able to appreciate the content a lot more than kids, which kind of defeats the purpose of having this for children. Still, it might be a good book to provoke discussions in schools or with guardians at home. Children will hopefully be able to understand the deeper sense of each emotion, and possibly even use it as a guide to express their own feelings.

Definitely not a bad picture book, but I expected more.

3.5 stars.

(Note that mine is a minority opinion. So take this review with a pinch of salt and go check out other reviews before you make up your mind about this picture book!)

My thanks to Archipelago, Elsewhere Editions, and NetGalley for the DRC of “What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This book is a good book for helping children understand certain emotions.
The illustrations are beautiful. The description and illustration describe each emotion almost perfectly. Although there were one or two emotions that weren't exactly how I pictured, they were all very, very well done.

This black and white illustrated picture book is delightful and somber.
The different emotions portrayed as creatures is really beautiful.
I love the thought that went into each illustration, especially the sadder emotions.
My favourite is loneliness.

What an adorable children's book about emotions! The words are simple, descriptive and easy for a young child to understand. The illustrations compliment the writing and give just enough of an explanation to describe each feeling. This would be a nice addition to any child's home, school or public library.

I wasn't expecting much, getting into this book. Although shorter and simpler than I'd initially anticipated, this little book pulls you in with it's humble prose. It was all laid down, simple with no complexities. And the metaphors were very on point. I think this takes us through a journey across feelings and emotions. Though I'm not the intended target audience, I found this book to be strangely soothing and think little kids would love reading through this.

This lovely picture book makes excellent use of the sparse drawings and words, taking a clever, sweet look at what simple, yet evocative images and words sum up the essence of various emotions. An excellent read for kids and grown ups alike.

Thank you to NetGalley and Elsewhere Editions for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a lovely illustrated book. It depicts different feelings in words and drawings. This is a good book for children, providing simple statements with huge meanings. It could easily be used as a springboard for many discussions, and also activities for allowing children’s expression can follow after reading. Recommended!

Oh my heart! This book is absolutely breath taking and is perfect for discussing feelings and mental health. Each feeling is expressed through beautiful and whimsical characters, transpiring into an exceptionally touching book which will move you to tears. Nostalgia is the feeling that got my tears flowing. I will be using this book with my children, with children I work with and as a gift for adults. It’s a stunning book.

This book really made me think. What would my feelings be doing when no one is looking? I'm excited to use it with the children at my school to see what their thoughts are. Some of the things the feelings were doing instantly clicked with me. Others made me think and wonder and I know it will generate lots of discussion when we read it.

The illustrations in the book are absolutely gorgeous and they link really well to the feelings. The book provides a wonderful opportunity to dive deeper into each of the feelings and consider how illustrations and text work together to make meaning. In the classroom, I think this will be a wonderful tool, to talk about feelings and what they look like/ feel like for different people, it's also going to provide endless opportunities for inferential questions development.

Wonderful book - cant wait to hopefully buy a copy for both home and school.

Wow! This is such a cool book! Each page shows a picture of a creature who personifies a feeling or emotion. Accompanying the picture is 1-2 short lines of text naming the feeling and describing what it does. For example, fear is hiding (camouflaged) because often those who are afraid hide (freeze in fight, flight, freeze) and maybe also because people try to hide their fears from others - not wanting to let anyone in. Another example (my favourite lol) is nostalgia sniffs a scarf and in the picture we only see the back of nostalgia as they are looking at pictures framed on a wall of similar looking creatures wearing the scarf. Super cute lol. I think parents and kids would enjoy this book together. I also think that this would be a fabulous introduction to lessons on emotions, especially because there are so many different emotions described, many of which some children may have never heard of! The book ends with a reminder that all of these emotions are within all of us. I think that normalizing the fact that we experience a range of emotions daily is very important for even very young children. As a grade 3 teacher I could definitely see this book in my classroom library and would recommend it to parents and teachers of children in the age 4-10 range. I could also see it as part of a project for older children to look at figurative language and emotions that they may not know about such as nostalgia or longing. Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing book! I will definitely head out to pick up a copy once it is published!

"Curiosity always climbs as high as possible ..." Always wants to know more, peeking through and observe what can satisfy their curiosity. I love this book, how the author and illustrator nailed the feelings like they are human. And my favorite is "Envy tramples all that is beautiful." So true, and a reminder to me to alleviate envy so I won't trample all that is beautiful. Would buy this in near future, and a good one for kids to identify their feelings better.

Thank-you Netgalley for the chance to review this book. What a lovely children's book about feelings. The text and illustrations are an absolute joy. It's a perfect book to read to help open discussions on how feelings affect us - either in the home or classroom setting.

Grateful to have received a digital copy of this book from NetGally & Archipelago, Elsewhere Editions

An introduction to the wide variety of feelings with the help of the adorable characters in this book. A great book for younger readers and an excellent conversation starter to get children to learn and become aware of their own feelings. The characters in this story are adorable (yes even anger is cute) and make feelings more approachable. The illustrations are unique, fun and beyond the creative imagination. Readers of all ages are sure to learn something about feelings after reading this adorable tale. I think that this would also be a great addition to any school counselor’s library to help students work with feelings they may not know that they are experiencing.

An adorable story about feelings and what they do when no one is looking. Each feeling is perfectly matched with an activity. The story made me feeling peaceful end the simple illustrations go beautifully with the text. I would love to buy this book to share with my children.

I am over 40 but I really loved this book because the illustrations and the text described each emotion so well. I really hope the author will do more books in this series. The illustration and text for calm were perfect. I know this book is aimed at kids but I would have loved it to be an longer with a chapter for each emotion.

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking by Tina Oziewicz

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This graphic novel uses visual depictions to explain feelings. I really like the art style and the way each feeling was represented. It was such a sweet and simple read. I’d recommend this book to parents/guardians and schools to help children better understand emotions.

“Envy tramples all that is beautiful. There’s no time to rest - there are so many beautiful things it has to ruin”

This book explores the different things that our emotions do when we aren't looking. The illustrations are beautiful and those along with the wording helps teach children about emotions and the things they do to us. My daughter especially loved Love hugging the lightbulb! The only thing preventing this from being a 5* is that I prefer a children's book that rhymes but this is still a very beautiful book.

What Feelings Do When No One's Looking reminded me a lot of Where the Wild Things Are in the illustrations. At first, I was torn with this children's book because I was hoping the author would dive deeper into the more negative emotions and how they can effect us, but I also had to realize that when I was a kid we didn't even talk about anxiety and stress. The idea that a parent could use this book to launch off into a discussion about all emotions and their effects is an exciting prospect to me.
Cute drawings, easy reading, important topics discussed.

What a marvelous book! This book seems like it could begin to build in kids the kind of metacognitive skills that are so important to good mental health. If thoughts do things when no one is looking, thoughts are external to us and we can choose how we respond to them. Maybe I'm taking this sweet, creative book too seriously. But, it seems like it belongs in every classroom, every home library, every seatback pocket. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for access to the ARC.