The Love Tank: A Book About Empathy, Kindness, and Self-Awareness for Children Ages 4-8

Loved this! I think parts of it might be a little heavy for younger readers but I think it will be very valuable to children 8+ as well as adults.

This was a super cute read for kids, filled with the most beautiful illustrations to go with it!

I do think some of the examples may be a little deep, and go over the heads of little ones. (For example, someone with an empty love tank might spend money and buy things to fill the void). I did love the introduction of the love tank being compared to the stomach and brain, as other tanks in our body!

But overall, this was a sweet book with a great message for youngins. I could see this being a great book to read to students during the first week of school, and referenced through the school year, by reminding each other to strive to fill their own and others love tanks.

What a sweet book! I love the metaphor for kids & teaching them about capacities as “tanks”—food tank, love tank, knowledge tank. The illustrations are gorgeous, and really add to the story. I will 100% be purchasing this for my own children but also for the kiddos I work with in a mental health setting.

I am always looking for books that make it easier to talk about complex emotions with children and "The Love Tank" did just that. The concept of the love tank also allows children to be able to express their feelings. Comparing the concept of feeling unloved, lonely, or less-than (a low love tank) to feeling hungry (stomach/food tank) makes it easier for a child to express these feelings. Mendoza-Vasconez expands this to include empathy and kindness by showing that low love tanks can cause people to behave in unhealthy ways.

This is a wonderful book on hand to help handle a more complex feeling with younger children.

This book helps breakdown and explain somewhat complex concepts for kids in a way that is easily understandable and relatable for them. The art work is cute and I can see myself grabbing this the next time I get books for younger kids in my family or friends that have children.

"The Love Tank" by Emma Johnson is a delightful and essential children's book that introduces young readers, aged 4 to 8, to important concepts such as empathy, kindness, and self-awareness. With its charming illustrations and relatable storytelling, this book offers a valuable lesson in emotional intelligence, encouraging children to develop strong, nurturing relationships with others.

We liked this book a lot! My daughter was talking about her love tank immediately after and what she could do to help others fill theirs. It was a great way to show and explain everything, and was also a good reminder for both kids and adults that our true happiness and love doesn't come from things or food or money, but from the love we have around us instead.

Such a cute book! The illustrations are so vibrant and beautiful. And the message is very good even for adults in this world who need a little reminder to be kind and take care of yourself :)

Thank you for the publisher and Netgally for allowing me to read this book!

This book was absolutely adorable! I was so approachable and understandable for young children to grasp the concept of empathy and kindness. Will absolutely be purchasing this for my nephew later this summer.

I read this book with my 8 year old son. We both loved it! It really does a good job of conveying why empathy, caring, and understanding are important. It also teaches about self awareness and why we all need love. The words and illustrations made it easy for my son to understand the topic. I think this is one that all children and frankly, a lot of adults should definitely read!

The Love Tank by Andrea Mendoza-Vasconez is a lovely, heartwarming children’s book. The metaphor of having a love tank inside you makes it easy for the child to understand situations discussed in the book. The illustrations help the children to imagine how giving and receiving love can affect you and others around you. The book prompted a conversation about emotion/sharing how we feel from my 6 year old who really enjoyed it.

I’d definitely recommend this book to other parents.

This is a great children’s book for children to understand love, kindness and empathy. It shows that if we give something away it doesn’t mean we are upset or empty but we should be happy that we are in return making someone else happy.

This is an absolutely adorable children's book with really nice illustrations. But far more important than the cute pictures is the fact that the message that the book conveys is critically important.

The author has come up with the ingenious idea of describing various parts of the human body as being like tanks requiring regular refills.

Just as a car needs to have its petrol tank filled in order to run well, human beings need to have their various tanks full in order to be happy and well.

So we have the food tank which is our stomach, and the knowledge tank which is our brain. But the love tank, which is our heart, is perhaps the one that we are most likely to forget to refill.

And the consequences of a love tank that is running low are pretty dire!

All this is explained beautifully in the book, in terms that young children will understand. And in the process, a number of lessons regarding kindness, the possible reasons behind bad behaviour, and the importance of self compassion are simply and effectively delivered.

I highly recommend this book for the target age group, and think that it's an excellent resource for the parents and carers of young children. 5 stars from me for this one!

Such a good book with a good message. We loved reading this book together as a family and my son requested we buy the book to have forever.

Such a great way to teach compassion to kids! I loved the way the love tank was presented in this book! I enjoyed that it said there was no good or bad people, just people with full or empty love tanks- as a teacher I am always telling my students they aren't good or bad kids, sometimes we just make not great choices and this is perfect to tie in with that! This book is perfect for parents or classroom teachers who want to teach their children/students about love tanks. and being compassionate people.

I read this with my daughter.

This book displayed a beautiful way of explaining organs in the body as “tanks” that need filling up. It mainly focused on the “love tank”. This book described ways you can help others fill their love tank, how you can fill your own, and how you can treat those who don’t have their love tanks filled.

By using this tank analogy, this book teaches children how to be empathetic when others are empty. Kindness goes a longggg way.

The Love Tank by Andrea Mendoza-Vasconez- 5/5
Children's Fiction

The Love Tank is a book that talks about empathy, kindness and self awareness for children between the ages of 4 to 8. This is an amazing book that gives us the chance to talk about subjects with our children to not only help them understand but a chance to answer any questions.

I enjoyed this story and the conversations it brough up with my 5 and 7 years old.

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the eARC.

I read The Love Tank with my four year old. We both really enjoyed the educational text and engaging illustrations. The story allowed for us to have a great conversation about filling your love tank and ways to do that. I liked that the authors included people who use food and shopping to fill their tanks. A great book to help young children start to understand their emotions.

Thank you for this ARC of such a beautiful book.
I read this with my 5year old and 9 year old. My 9 year old just had a really hard year and was getting physically bullied at school for months. This book helped us talk a lot about that bully and how he needs some help filling up his love tank.
My 5 year old really enjoyed the book as well and totally loved the concept.
We all enjoyed the colorful graphics and illustrations as well.

This will definitely be one we add to our shelves.

What a beautiful story with equally beautiful illustrations.

I loved that the author expressed that you fill a love tank by loving on others, loving yourself and by receiving love. I think each of those is equally important. I think it was also a great addition to touch on excessive consumerism and emotional eating.

The story ended well with giving examples of how to keep your tank full but I wish it could have dove a little deeper into those examples. I think even as adults, sometimes we have difficulty knowing what that might look like.

The Love Tank gets all the love from my family! I absolutely, truly loved this book.

One big thing I liked: the idea that there are no good or bad people just people who have full love tanks and empty love tanks. This is a big thing I talk with my 7 year old about. The actions of others can be confusing and make us sad, but many people have empty love tanks and it shows in their actions and words. Like the saying goes, “hurt people hurt people.”

This is a book I will purchase for our family’s home library and will request our local library purchase a copy too. This is definitely one of the best children’s books about emotions I’ve ever read!

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!

The Love Tank is the quintessential book to teach kids about compassion and empathy. The idea for the story is creative, and it breaks down the complexity of trying to understand why some kids are not as nice as others. This book should be at the front of every display, and all kids should be required to read it. Not only does The Love Tank help kids develop an attitude of kindness, it is also fun! The illustrations are lively, and the text is just the right length to hold onto their interest. Well done!

{Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read this book!}

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What a beautifully articulated book! Clear, easy to understand and definitely easy to be absorbed by a child.

As a Mom of 3, and a first generation Emotionally Present Mom, this is the exact type of book I’ve been wanting to find for my kids. The unseen emotional tanks are so important when interacting in society. I love the positive verbiage to describe people in challenging mindsets or emotional states as well. The illustrations were also great in helping portray the information! All around a very positive and educational book for all ages.

A beautiful book with precious illustrations that encourages kids to spread love and kindness. My daughter loved it. We ended up having a sweet and important conversation about our tanks and self care. Especially Mommy’s lol.

This is such a thoughtfully put together and wise book for children. I like that it teaches children to be loving, but not at the expense of their own need for love.

This book is relatable for any child and is a good way to have a conversation with them about their emotions. The concept of having tanks (food, knowledge, and love) in our body that can be empty or full is a good visual for young kids to understand. I like that there is a link to colouring and activity pages in the back of the book. These activities would be useful for parents, preschool or elementary school teachers to use with their kids to help them understand what makes them happy, recognize other people’s emotions based on facial expressions and body language, as well as things that can be done to help someone fill their love tank. Overall, this book sends a positive message that we should always be kind and look for ways to maximize our own happiness as well as others.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was absolutely adorable. It's a great explanation on why some people are happy and loving and why others are not. My 5 year old was able to understand the writing and message, which is a big positive for a children's book! The drawings were perfect for the book itself and helped my children understand more about what was going on. Super cute and filled our love tanks with the message.

An easy-to-understand picture book for children about empathy and self-love with beautiful illustrations. Though the audience is 4-8-years-old children I was moved to tears by the end.

I really loved the flowing imagery, it was a nice depiction of how love flows among everyone and never stops. I was positively surprised to see examples of eating disorder and addiction mentioned in the book (binge-eating and shopping addiction were shown as examples and touched upon lightly, appropriate for the audience). I also really liked the emphasis on self-love and the explanation of no good or bad people only one's lacking love.
I missed one thing here though, because showing empathy to people who are 'grumpy' and showing love towards them came right after examples were shown for people actually bullying others because they didn't feel enough love (tripping, shouting and laughing at someone). I'm afraid children might get the wrong idea that they should help those who hurt them and empathize with them.

Otherwise it's a wonderful book and can highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wholesome Books for providing the ARC.

I really love this book. The picture and the message sooo good, and heartwarming with cute illustration.
I love this part : "sometimes, when their love tank is really really empty, people Will di bad things, maybe even hurt others. Because people with an empty love tank are not able to give as much love as they could if their love tank was full."

This book's illustrations were vividly colored. It was a great book with fun teachings. I liked how it teaches kids to use their imaginations and about love and other emotions. It also helps them to understand what happens when there is no love. It was an engaging, educational, and delightful book.

The Love Tank teaches young readers about kindness and love. The young characters learn about a "tank' that we all have in our bodies to hold love. They learn that this tank fills through showing and receiving love, and being kind and compassionate. Recommended for ages 4 - 6

I liked this book. I actually got a copy of this book for review from the publisher via NetGalley, but all of my thoughts are my own. The Love Tank is a really good concept in a way that children can understand. I liked the specific difference mentioned between your love tank and being hungry and how trying to fill your love tank with food or shopping will only leave you still feeling empty. I asked my daughter (7 years old) what she thought of this book. She said it was good, and she liked it, but that it was too similar to another book she read. And that made me think of Have You Filled A Bucket Today?, and she verified that was the book she was thinking of. I agree with her. I didn't get both books out to compare one to the other (since we own Have You Filled a Bucket...), but I feel like it went more in depth. If you had to buy one of them only, I would recommend Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, but I like that they both address a similar concept, and this can be great for repition that children need. And having both to use in teaching your kids would be a great way to address their emotional needs and teach them about how to treat others.

A really sweet book about the tanks in your body - the food tank (stomach) and knowledge tank (brain).

“Giving away love to others does not drain your love tank. It fills it up”

The story takes about how people are not bad, they just have an empty love tank. People may do bad things because they are not feeling loved themselves.

The story reminds readers about empathy, love, forgiveness and kindness. Perfect book for bedtime reading or for a PSHE lesson on feelings and kindness.

With the world in chaos and so many people spewing misinformation and/or vileness into the world, it's important that we all know how to navigate to keep some sense of balance.

Kids are no different and this book, The Love Tank, helps them learn about how they can help, listen, and heal when the world gets overwhelming. And it also discusses ways we can be aware of our own shortcomings and how to improve.

Humankind seems to be quite short on compassion these days so I won't say this book is only for super young readers. Honestly, I think anyone could benefit from this sweet read.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I love this book. It articulates emotional intelligence in age appropriate terms and gives young children a perfect visual to think about how they relate to others and what it does for them. I also love that there is a message about self love too. So important to share this messaging with children as they are in their formative development period. The illustrations are beautiful as well.