Illustrated by Jenny Latham
Published by Little Tiger
The Feeling Good Club is a such a wonderful, heartfelt story, told in a journal format, emphasising the importance of sharing your feelings and the enjoyment and advantages to be gained from using mindfulness activities to help you through difficult feelings and times.
As I was reading, I could really appreciate how beneficial this book would be for children who are struggling with worries and opening up about their feelings. I loved the mindfulness activities which are also included at the back of the book, and will definitely be looking at these with my class. This is a wonderful book to use with a class to discuss worries and feelings, and to encourage empathy.
Bella has been given a journal by her best friend, Rohisha, on her last day as she is moving house and going to a new school. Not only does Bella have the worry of losing her best friend and facing school feeling sad and alone, but she is also nervous about giving a class talk as she does not feel confident in speaking in front of others. Can her friendship with Rosh survive the move? Can she overcome her worry about giving the class talk?
With these big worries, Bella is not looking forward to taking part in a Feeling Good Week at school, but exploring her feelings and becoming more resilient when faced with difficult situations and emotions may be just what she needs. The activities during the week also gives her the opportunity to begin to form a tentative new friendship with Shazmin and Archie. Will she be able to open up about her feelings with these new friends? Will they be able to help her overcome her fears about giving the class talk?
I loved the journal format which shows Bella as such a genuine, open and chatty ten-year-old who will be incredibly relatable to children as she opens up about her worries and works through them with her family and friends. I also really enjoyed the use of emojis to show Bella’s feelings at the start of each day, and the fantastic expressive character illustrations and doodles throughout which complement the format perfectly. I can imagine that lots of children would enjoy keeping their own journal, and even having their own Feeling Good Club.
I really liked that the adults in this book were supportive towards Bella, trying to help and offering her advice, and also that she felt she could open up to her parents and older sister. I found this a really positive element within the story.
Not only is this a hugely enjoyable, warm, fun story of finding friendship and overcoming fears, but it is also a brilliant introduction to mindfulness activities which could really benefit young readers. A fantastic, much-needed addition to school and class libraries.
This is definitely a story I’ll be recommending to the children in my class, and I’m already looking forward to making Mindful Glitter Jars with them which I think are fantastic! I’m so glad that this is the start of a series, and am really looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to Little Tiger for inviting me to be part of this Blog Tour, and for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Please do check out the other stops:
Book Craic 