Book Details
Clarion Books/Harper Collins (June 11, 2024)
ISBN 9780063265783
Description
One of the Best Children’s Books of 2025 compiled by the Children’s Book Committee of the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature
A back-to-school picture book about the importance of acknowledging your feelings and using them as tools for navigating new experiences. Inspired by the way teachers talk about emotional literacy with young children, this is the ideal book for any kid facing a big milestone, from the author of the bestselling The Goodnight Train.
There’s a lot to check off on the back-to-school list. Lunchbox? Check. Notebook? Paper? Glue stick? Check. Check. Check. But school supplies aren’t the only thing we bring with us. We also bring along our FEELINGS!!
Follow along as a class of young children learns to identify and process the wide array of feelings they meet on the first day of school. Say “hello” to HAPPY, soothe ANGER, jump with EXCITED, and shout HOORAY when a fun day comes to an end.
Inspired by the way educators talk about emotions and build emotional literacy with young children, this rhyming picture book encourages readers to observe and name their feelings and use them to their advantage. First Day, Hooray! provides the tools needed for social emotional learning in and outside the classroom and is an ideal read for rising kindergarteners, to share leading up to and during the first days of school and anytime a child is facing a big change. Includes a back matter note from an educator to guide teachers and caregivers in encouraging emotional literacy with children.
Praise
“A diverse group of children experience the wide variety of emotions the first day of school can bring. Using rhyming couplets, the author highlights some of the things that children might experience on their first day. Happy, sad, angry, worried, excited, and brave, along with a few other emotions, are briefly described, along with simple ways to respond to them. The stunning, colorful illustrations show children of various backgrounds and ethnicities going through a day of school. Emotions are highlighted in both text and pictures using various colors. Worried is blue, anger is red, curiosity is orange, and so on. The illustrations clearly depict the emotions through facial expressions, as well as through dreamlike colors and images surrounding the child the story is focusing on. Various animals and colors represent each emotion; for example, the child who is mad is surrounded by lightning bolts, exploding color, and a roaring tiger.
“VERDICT A first purchase. This is a great title for sharing with children to encourage vocalization of feelings, especially those related to the experience of going to school for the first time.”
—Heidi Grange, School Library Journal (starred review)
“The first day of school overflows with feelings.
“Children starting school experience conflicting emotions; the racially diverse youngsters in this book are no different. Throughout, they exhibit excitement, nervousness, fear, happiness, and anxiety. Sobel acknowledges these universal emotions, which stand out on the page in colorful capitals letters: ‘EMBARRASSED! / Oops! Paint in my hair!’ ‘Hello HAPPY soaring by. / A joyful bird loves to fly.’ Lively digital illustrations depict a variety of realistic school scenarios: a child having a meltdown after breaking a pencil and losing a folder; children excitedly playing at recess. The author makes clear that we all experience a range of feelings and that our emotions matter; she also acknowledges that feelings depend on circumstances. The illustrations provide jumping-off points for discussion, so grown-ups reading this book aloud should encourage youngsters to talk about how starting school—or navigating any new life experiences—made them feel and what events triggered the feelings. Helpful backmatter includes questions that adults can ask kids as they read. The author includes comforting, mindful messages: Breathe deeply when you’re upset, don’t be afraid to try new things, and ‘take time out’ when angry. Perhaps most reassuring: ‘Feelings are not right or wrong. / They find a spot where they belong.’
“A validating and comforting look at big emotions. (Picture book. 4-7)”
—Kirkus
“Using declarative couplets that center emotional recognition, Sobel cheers on students experiencing a range of first-day feels. ‘Out of sight and stashed away,/ feelings visit us all day,’ reassure early lines that urge mindful awareness. From happiness and worry to bravery and embarrassment, the text describes a full range of emotions, usefully pointing to breathwork as a resource during moments of stress: ‘What’s up, ANGER? Take time out./ Tame the flame. Breathe in. Breathe out.’ Adani’s light-filled, spatter-textured artwork presents students of different skin tones in classic classroom and schoolyard scenes, visualizing emotions via bursts of color and animal avatars that peek out from behind students (an octopus, for example, proves emblematic of curiosity, and jellyfish of calm). An endnote discusses emotional expression and regulation. (Ages 4-8)”
—Publishers Weekly
