A lovely picture book for children about dealing with emotions. The author encourages the reader to accept their emotions, to “ride the wave”, rather than fight the big, scary emotions, which can then overwhelm.

As an adult I embraced the concept, however I’m not sure that children would understand the idea. The author also introduced the idea of ‘tricky thoughts’ which is a valid issue to tackle, but I’m not sure the two work that well together in the same book.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a sweet message but I feel like a 4-year-old would not sit through this entire book. It felt really long and slightly repetitive. I would suggest changing the age suggestion to 6+.

I could not get the Adobe Digital Editions version to zoom out in order to read it. I'm not sure if that's my error or the file, but I tried everything in the software to attempt to read it. I ended up reading it on my kindle, which worked well.

This is a very sweet book that talks about big emotions in a way that I think a lot of young children will understand. The idea that waves will overwhelm you if you fight against them, but if you relax your body and go with them they will wash over you is the kind of idea children will understand. The images in the book are also beautiful. I personally feel sadness when I think about the death of one of my pets so I think I could use some of the tips from this book. I think that the fact the author doesn't shy away from the lose of something/someone that you love is important. Children often think of emotions like anger, fear and sadness as bad emotions and feel that they should be happy all the time. This book will help them to understand that all emotions are valid and if we listen to them and embrace them rather than fight against them, they can tell us useful things.

Although I recieved a copy of this ebook in exchange for my review, all opinions remain my own. Thank you NetGalley and Woodbridge Publishers for the opportunity read this story.

This is a children's book about dealing not only with sadness but all the "big emotions." As a person who feels my big emotions in a big way and a mother of three girls who do the same, this book was awesome. I wish I had it when my girls were younger, but it is no less helpful now. I think I might just pick up a copy to keep around now. The illustrations are soothing and beautiful. It can be helpful to remind even myself of the meditation practices when things get out of hand. I'm going to quote one page that stood out to me: Sometimes we have tricky thoughts that seem true but aren't. Untrue thoughts can be very sneaky, but you have the power to spot them by paying close attention. It's like playing hide and see with someone who can hide very well. When you find a tricky thought, you can gently let it go." Isn't that a great way to describe those intrusive thoughts? LOVE this book!

The mystical realness of this book brings to life the true struggle of handling sadness and the fear that comes with it. It is a great book to help teach children about sadness and how to cope. It was an easy read and even helped me. I now think of this book and how Gia handled her sadness anytime I feel sad.