In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek is a picture book full of different emotions and feelings that people experience all of the time.  Each page introduces a certain way the author is feeling and the author expresses the emotion using a multitude of figurative language, especially similes, metaphors, and personification.  The last line on each page list the feeling the author is having, like happy or sad.  This book would be a great introduction to a figurative language lesson.  After reading In My Heart: A Book of Feelings, students could pick a feeling and describe it using different types of figurative language. According to the Flesch-Kincaid readability leveling system, In My Heart: A Book of Feelings is a level of 2.7 (2nd grade to 3rd grade). 

This book of feelings is a great way to portray feelings to younger students. It goes through all different kinds of emotions all of us feel at some point and gives a description of how you might feel when you feel that particular emotion. This opens an opportunity to discuss those feelings are how we may handle them in the best way. After introducing this book to the class, the teacher could create a board with several of the emotions on it. Create and name tag and laminate for each child and as the students come in everyday they can choose their name and stick it under the emotion they are feeling that day. This can let the teacher know who may have had a rough start to the morning and those that are 100% that day. Also after reading the book, the teacher can have a template in the writing station, or during a time allotted for writing, that asks the students how their heart feels and why. Have them illustrate their writing when they are finished. This would be great for the beginning of the year while you are getting to know your students or around Valentine's day. Several activities can be done with this book.

 

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 2.7

Flesch Reading Ease: 87.3

I am a huge fan of Christmas stories and will read them throughout the year. I am not sure where or when I picked this one up at, but with a cover like this, can you blame me? I am as much a victim of man candy-itis as the next woman.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book. I actually read the chapter and a half and put the book aside for a month or so and went on to other books. But the story nagged at me, so I made time, restarted the book and this time read the book in one sitting.

There is a strong paranormal element in this book. Emma Turner's husband, Major Lawrence Turner died while in the military, away from his family. His spirit shows up every year around Christmas time to check in with Jake Nicklaus and to make sure that Jake is looking after Emma and her children. This year Larry tells Jake that he must do whatever it takes to restore Emma's Christmas Spirit.

While Jake works towards restoring Emma's Christmas Spirit, all Emma wants to do is see a particular Christmas Spirit, ie her husband Larry, on more than Christmas Eve, the one night he shows himself to her each year.

There were quite a bit of the characters working at cross purposes that caused some laughs, but the bulk of this book more on the darker emotional side. But this is what happens when you are reading about death, transitions and acceptance. There were several scenes that had me grabbing for the tissue, although thankfully I was smiling at the end. This turned out to be quite a roller coaster of emotions and except for the husband's spirit coming back to visit, could be the tale of any military widow. I really enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars.

Santa Wore Combat Boots - Barbara Witek The spirit of the dead husband who made Jake promise to take care of his wife and children but they(Jack and Emma) started to fall in love and the spirit of Larry is angry, because he thinks Jack is taking everything away from him although he died more then three years ago and he wants his wife to be happy and to find the Christmas spirit again. But Larry doesn't want to let go. But then realizes his mistake and appear in front of his life to tell her that she need to move with Jake. And HEA with the spirit appearing on Christmas.

The book was very strangely written and I can't say I liked it.

Lift-the-flap books guarantee a level of interaction between a book and a reader that facilitates deeper immersion in a topic. None better served here than the curiosity of a child regarding a soon-to-be sibling growing inside a mother's womb. The flaps here start small and grow with the baby's size. The baby isn't anatomically correct, but rather a joyful, playful idea of a baby growing until it's ready for the big reveal. The production details of the die-cut cover reinforce a tactile experience. The art is cute and quirky lending this book a welcome style and flair.