This is another book I read with my 5 year old about emotions. I like how this gave a scenario where he reacted to all the big emotions in a bad way and then when the thing actually happened, he knew how to react better. I also liked the tips page.

Thank you Boys Town Press, NetGalley and Julia Cook for the ARC. All opinions stated are my own.

What a wonderful way to help young children understand the complexities of their emotions. This has lots of 'Inside Out' vibes without becoming so surreal that children won't understand.

Dawson and his emotions are usually all in balance but sometimes one takes over. This book teaches children a valuable lesson about how to take back the control when your emotions overwhelm you.

The pictures are bright and cute and led to lots of giggles from my daughter. We had a recent bereavement and this book opened some beautiful discussions about emotions and particularly why it is ok to be sad sometimes.

A really good book to help with a really difficult concept

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a huge fan of Julia Cook's book. She has a gift for taking tough concepts and making them easy to understand for younger kids. As a kindergarten teacher I will definitely use this one to help explain some basic emotions to my students. I have one other Awesome Dawson book and can't wait to add this one to my collection as well.

It was fun to read this book to my nieces tonight before bed. A fun conversation. Dawson understands his emotions without them being too complex. He’s young, so as he gets older is emotions will become more complicated. Very cute book.

I really loved so many things about this books! The simplicity of the language and the descriptions of the feelings are very well written and easy to understand.

The examples used throughout the book are relevant and relatable for children. I would definitely read this to my 2 year old and use the descriptions to explain different feelings to the autistic children I work with.

The only thing that slightly bothers me from the perspective of an occupational therapist, is that I wish the colours used for each emotion would align with those used in the Zones of Regulation for continuity with teaching these concepts to children, as the Zones of Regulation program is commonly used across schools.

As a mental health professional, I appreciated this book a lot! I think most of the information presented was developmentally appropriate, accurate mental health information, and was both informative and relatable to young children who are just learning about their emotions. I like that there was a compare and contrast between what happens when emotions aren’t regulated (the first set of scenes) vs. when they are regulated (the scenes with the squishy). I thought it was brilliant that the parent supported the child in expressing his emotions while also reminding him to use his squishy to regulate every feeling, not just some of them. I think the fact the author emphasized how ALL emotions are helpful was also amazing in destigmatizing the “undesirable” emotions like anger and sadness. All emotions are telling us something, and the explicit conversation about that throughout the book was great. There was also one page that talked about the emotions happening at once which was also realistic and normalized ambivalence - very nuanced! I liked the psychoeducation at the end of the book for both children and adults who are caregiving.

In terms of the illustrations, I found the partial highlight of the emotions on the child’s body to symbolize that emotions are only PART of a person, and they never fully take over to a point of being uncontrolled (half of the body became red, blue, green, and yellow - it’s not ALL of them, but part of them). I think this also symbolized the temporary nature of emotions - they always fade away at some point. I loved this touch!

The one part of the book that I think could use some changing was the scene about the carrots and cotton candy. I think the prioritization of certain foods over other foods encourages an unbalanced and potentially unhealthy relationship with food. When certain foods are made to be ‘bad’ and require that you eat something ‘good’ first or instead of, then we’re almost making those ‘bad’ foods even MORE desirable. When we have a neutral take on all food and talk about how all foods have their time and place, then the relationship with food isn’t as polarized.

Overall, great book! I’d love to see what my 2 y/o niece would think of this.

this book was so cute and i think it’s perfect for children. children have a hard time expressing themselves and this book is a great tool for navigating their emotions and help them understand what they are feeling. the illustrations are beautiful and colorful. i would read this to my children.

Awesome Dawson Has Big Emotions was really cute book and does a fantastic job explaining emotions and depicting a physical representation of them.
I really appreciated they showed Dawson using a fidget to help regulate his emotions which is great representation and helps normalize needing an outlet and assistance for managing emotions

The artwork was cute and the illustrator did a fantastic job representing the story, using bright colors to help get and maintain the attention of young kids.

I received this book as an Arc from NetGalley. All opinions are my own. I want to say thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this opportunity.

This book is a very good way to explain how emotions help us function. I enjoyed how they included angry and how it is a natural reaction. Anger is viewed negative. This book didn't make sadness or anger into bad emotions, they are just emotions that we feel when someone or something upsets us. It was very colorful and can keep the attention of a child.

I loved that this book didn't demonise what could be considered negative emotions and showed that they have a part to play and that any emotion when too big or in complete control can make things harder.

While it was nice going back and seeing how things could have gone better with more well managed emotions it made it feel a bit repetitive and my child lost interest at that point

I enjoyed this book, an easy to read book with some beautiful illustrations. I like the idea of the squishy as a way of dealing with emotions.
I also liked reading the tips at the end which I think will be very useful. Overall an amazing book for kids to learn about emotions.

Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me a copy of this book to review.

I absolutely love both the animation and the story line of this story. It is so important to raise children with understanding to of their emotions.

My child and I loved the illustration and way the information about our emotions was presented. The descriptions of how our emotions impact our bodies is very useful for children to understand what they are feeling and why. It is written in a way that my 2 and 4 year olds could identify and relate. The illustrations helped facilitate discussions about how our emotions can impact each other and we can feel more than one at a time.

The information at the back of the book for parents and caregivers was helpful.

Illustrations are colorful and captivating. The Illustrations helped communicate the message effectively and prompted good questions.

Will be recommending to friends with kids in a similar age group (2-5).

Awesome Dawson helps kids identify how different emotions feel in the body and what might cause them. More importantly, it gives some suggestions of tangible things to do if feelings get too big. This would be a great resource for early elementary classrooms.

Thanks to Boys Town Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

A sweet book on learning what emotions are and how to deal with when they get too big, but also how they keep us safe. It a little gimmicky with the squishi which you can buy, but helpful all the same.

Thank you for the ARC. This book did an incredible job describing emotions and showing children they are in charge of those emotions. I loved that each emotion had its own color coordinated to it. The visuals were great and illustrations were on point. This will be a really helpful book as my toddler gets older. He’s already going through many emotions so I can wait to buy this and read it together once he understands more.

This book is both adorable and useful.
I read this with my toddler and she enjoyed reading and talking about it. I really liked that the emotions had their own colors and could see them taking over Dawson’s body and how big emotions look. The visuals made the conversations about big feeling go smoothly. The tips page at the back was helpful too! It’s nice to have reminders because sometimes it’s easy to feel out of control when kids act out from their big emotions.

This book does a really good job of explaining emotions for younger kids. I really like that it not only describes the emotions but also how even an emotion like anger can be a good thing and it provides coping skills for kids.