I Am Okay to Feel

PreS-Gr 2–Brown serves up a gem of a book: a father and child, both Black, the child deliberately nongendered, focus on handling emotions. As a perfect day in the park turns stormy, the child gets scared and needs to cope with the large emotional shift. The father responds deftly. Rather than snapping at his kid to suck it up and just not be scared, he demonstrates the key questions to ask kids when they’re grappling with feelings. “What is in your head?” “Why does the storm scare you?” These are followed by grounding exercises to keep panic from overtaking the child completely. The calm delivery and love between the two characters shine. The use of light and dark in the illustrations is cozy, cocooning, and safe. As the child feels more secure, warmth fills the page. While the story itself offers amazing resources and strategies for handling big emotions, extended recommendations and sources from professionals at the end are also critical to the book’s worth.