Emotions in Motion

Emotions in Motion by Rose Stanley, illustrated by Lisa Allen (Starfish Bay Children’s Books)

PB RRP $14.99

ISBN 9780994100290

Reviewed by Leigh Owen

Emotions in Motion is a picture concept book suitable for sharing with 4-8 year olds. On each double page spread an emotion is assigned a colour, a face and a feeling. Rose Stanley’s descriptions of feelings are particularly insightful and imaginative: Confusion feels like walking in a maze of trees that all look the same.

Ten emotions, both positive and negative, are covered.

Lisa Allen’s illustrations are simple yet show some delightful details that children will love to spot (look out for the dragon).The sweet line-drawn characters clearly convey facial expressions and colour washes are either soft or vibrant, to complement each feeling.

There are exercises and discussion points in the back of the book; however, a more natural approach would be to talk about each concept as read. The use of the ‘colour wheel’ at the end of the book doesn’t seem to add value to the core topic of emotions. Also the colour for ‘Peace’ is somewhat inaccurate – that is, stated as bright, sky blue but more of pastel green in the main illustration and wheel. This might be confusing for children still learning their colours.

The value of this book lies it its capacity to promote discussion in which children can verbalise their own feelings and begin to understand the strange and sometimes overwhelming forces that are emotions.

Muddle and Mo

Muddle and Mo by Nikki Slade Robinson (Starfish Bay Children’s Books)

HB RRP $25.99

ISBN 9780994100757

PB RRP $14.99

ISBN 9780994100740

Reviewed by Leigh Owen

Sometimes simple is beautiful. This is the case with the picture book Muddle and Mo.

In fewer than one hundred words author/illustrator Nikki Slade Robinson tells a tale of Muddle, the duck trying to understand what he is and why his friend Mo is so odd.  Your beak is too hairy…. You should eat worms.

In fact, Mo is a goat and Muddle is a duck, which of course, children will know right from the start but following Muddle as he puzzles over their identities is the fun of the story.

The illustrations mainly consist of just the two stylised animals in various comical poses on a textured brown background. The simplicity is charming and somehow comforting

I imagine children will soon be memorising this book and reading aloud to themselves. This is enabled, not only by the sparse story and illustrations but also the large clear text and the use of different fonts for the speech of Muddle and the speech of Mo. As a reader I enjoyed coming up with voices for the two characters; the energetic duck and the more lay-back goat.

Muddle and Mo is a delightful book begging to be read aloud to 2-6 year olds.